Honest Bond
by God-King-Moth
Summary: Team Seven was slated for miserable failure from the beginning- the Council only really cared about Sasuke being mentored under Kakashi. The others? Well, the fewer milestones the demon crossed, the better, and some civilian girl really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things... Right? (Team Seven family fic, gen focus, no set pairings. T for language and mature themes)
1. Chapter 1

:Ok so this was actually my first proper attempt at a Naruto fic, not just a drabble, and I think I started it like last year at the start of march- originally it was just a thing to show my friend who also loves the fox boy, but it kind of... spiralled. I think I've gone over and rewritten this first chapter a total of twenty eight times this year alone, always adding and expanding, and now I'm finally happy with it! There's ten chapters already written, so hopefully updates will be nice and regular! Anyway, I hope ya'll like my relatively contrived Team Seven upgrade lmao.:

...

Sakura is tired. She knows there are dark circles forming under her eyes (something Sasuke will notice and find unattractive, she can just tell) and she knows her diet isn't doing her any favours when she skips a full meal- even if her 'full meals' aren't much at all. She got up so early her mother wasn't even awake, so she had no help brushing her hair out and something about the lack of routine is driving her crazy.

Her eye twitches as Naruto bounces- he hasn't stopped since he got here after 6 am, a full ten minutes late. It's not as bad as their sensei though, she thinks- because he's a whole _hour_ late. Naruto's enthusiasm is getting on her already frayed nerves, Sasuke outright ignored all her attempts to talk to him, _again_ ; and Naruto just won't shut up- on the best of days he's annoying, and today is anything but.  
Naruto starts on a tangent about how he'll beat this test and become Hokage instantly and she's just had enough. He's been wearing on her for years. No amount of whacks and jabs and yelling and ignoring have ever made him go away; and she's tried, god she's tried. He never stops talking, always loud and obnoxious and playing pranks and disrespectful- he blatantly ignores all the rules of being a ninja, and still expects his mediocre skills to be worthy of promotion to Hokage. He never listens in class- he barely even attends, and in her opinion the glares he gets from the adult population would lessen drastically if he just. Calmed. Down.

But he's Naruto. He never does. More inane babble trickles in through her ears, another request for a date-

It's just too much to handle right now. She's overwhelmed.

"Shut up! Just SHUT UP! No one cares about you Naruto! No one cares about your stupid dreams and your stupid ambitions! You're annoying and idiotic and nobody will ever love you! And you know why? It's because you're _useless_! You don't bother listening to anyone or doing anything by the rules. And- another thing! I will never ever date you! I want nothing to do with you! My mother was right when she said to stay away from you! You'll never be anything but a _dead last loser_!"

An abrupt silence falls over the training ground. Sakura breathes heavily, face flushed red with rage. As the silence continues she starts to calm, and becomes aware of the soft sounds coming from the boy in front of her. At some point during her yelling he turned away, and now she can only see his back and the bowed arch of his neck as he hangs his head.  
He's crying. Sakura has never once seen him make any expression other than excitement and occasionally annoyance- usually at Sasuke. But, she's never heard anyone give him such a tongue lashing before either. Guilt spreads through her for a moment- but she didn't really mean half the things she said, she reassures herself. She was just feeling angry. Naruto will be fine. His ever cheerful grin is indestructible; a constant in every moment. He's annoying- but he has good intentions. No way this will keep him down for long, right?

A sad, hicuppy sound breaks her train of thought.

"N-Naruto...?" She whispers, her confidence gone as quickly as it came; and suddenly she's very, very afraid of the consequences of her uncontrolled outburst. He lets out a broken little whimper.

"You're right... no one will ever accept me... it's stupid to try..." Sakura listens as his breathing starts to stutter and turn to messy, gasping sobs.

"Naruto... I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

She recoils when he whirls, tears running down his face and his mouth turned in a pained grimace.

"It's so dumb! There's no way the village will ever want me. I'll never be anything to them but the orphan dem-" he stumbles, for just a moment, face twisting in an ugly way. "- _brat_ , only good to throw rotten food at and to chase on the festival- beat him up on his birthday and no one says a thing because no one loves him! He'll never have a family. Doesn't even deserve to live." He stomps his foot on the ground angrily, wipes his arm over his face, but only succeeds in smearing the tears over his cheeks. "He'll never have friends! He's useless! No one wants to teach him anything because he'll only screw it up and get it wrong! Too poor to buy anything he really needs, and everyone looks the other way when he's overcharged or kicked out of a store!"

Sakura is frozen in horror as he slowly sinks to the ground, hands over his face as he cries.

"N-Naruto I-"

She blinks. No one will teach him? Shops refuse to serve him?

Sakura is not an unintelligent person. She's incredibly book smart- she's been studying for years about everything she can get her hands on, everything she might ever be able to make use of. The teachers always blow Naruto off, make him stand in the corner or send him out. Has he ever actually stayed an entire lesson- she doesn't think so, discounting Iruka's classes. But was it of his own free will at first? Did he just give up trying to attend on time- give up trying to behave because they'd never let him stay anyway, never let him learn? His obsession with ramen- cheap and easy to make. The ridiculous clothes? The only thing he could afford. Cold confusion and doubt settles over her, facts starting to pull together in her mind, creating a tangled web she doesn't really want to look at.

And then Sasuke is there, brow scrunched up in what looks like an actual attempt at a facial expression, and she thinks maybe he can salvage this with one of his jabs, make Naruto yell about their rivalry- distract him from her harsh words long enough for her to rationalise everything, think of an apology, make sense of her conflicting thoughts. Because every authority figure she's ever trusted says Naruto is a menace; a monster. So they must be right. But why would Naruto make up such accusations while sobbing so hard? She's seen him lie. He smiles so wide his eyes close. She just doesn't understand.

"You... you're not alone, dobe. My brother killed my whole family. Made me relive it for two days in my head. Told me that I had to hate everything and everyone if I ever wanted to kill him. And then- then everyone started hailing me as a prodigy. Amazing Sasuke. Started putting in foster claims- wanting the _fame_ of raising the 'Last Uchiha'." His voice shifts with disgust. "I don't want that. I just- I just want revenge. I want to know why he did it." He takes a shaky breath. "I taught myself how to cook, how to do laundry and sharpen kunai. I live in an empty house in empty grounds. Because of him. Because he wanted to test his _abilities_ on our _family_." His face starts to smooth itself out, and Sakura is on the verge of frustrated tears of her own as she watches him start to cry, expressionless and still.

"I just want my parents back." He whispers, and then abruptly sits down next to Naruto.

They cry together, one weeping and messy and loud and the other hunched forward, silent and still with tears streaming down his face.

Sakura kneels next to them after a moment, because her worldview is in shards, and she doesn't understand and she doesn't know if she believes this, any of this, because surely the _Hokage_ wouldn't let this happen, if nothing else. They all know about the massacre- Uchiha Itachi going crazy, slaughtering everyone- but torturing Sasuke with genjutsu? Letting him live alone with his ghosts- she's always assumed he had a guardian living with him- it doesn't make sense and everything has to make sense. Sakura has to rationalise everything, it's what she's good at, what she does.

But everything she's learnt about either of her teammates, everything she's read and been taught about body language and psychology... It's telling her neither of them are lying.

"Naruto, Sasuke, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't- I didn't know. I didn't know any of this. I don't- I just don't understand. Adults are supposed to protect us. Why..." She starts to cry as well, and before she knows it both of the boys are hugging her, Naruto weeping into her shoulder and Sasuke gripping her wrist as he leans into her side.

"It's okay, Sakura." She feels Naruto mumble into the rapidly dampening fabric of her dress. "It's okay. No one ever told you that adults lie, that adults aren't fair. They never lied to hurt _you_. I'm _glad_."

Somehow it crushes her heart more to hear that than for him to be angry at her.

She throws her arms around them both, and pulls them close as they all sit and cry until all the tears are gone, and they're left curled together for comfort.

"We're going to help you kill your brother, Sasuke. Who cares about doing what he says you should? Why should you listen to that asshole about going it alone and hating everyone. It's stupid." Naruto rasps, turning his head and fixing red rimmed eyes on the other boy. Sasuke nods, slowly, and Sakura squeezes them both tighter.

"We will teach you, Naruto. You don't- you don't need the approval of the village. You don't. You have us. We won't lie to you." Sasuke's voice is raspy, and Sakura is too tired to be astonished at the amount of words he has spoken today- she's pretty sure it outnumbers the total she's ever heard from him, in fact. It doesn't matter. She nods along with both of them-

Naruto isn't the class idiot. The teachers obviously have something against him, along with the rest of the village (and the small, fierce voice in her head demands retribution from them _all_ for hurting her teammate; any animosity she harboured towards him washed away) and she's going to fix all the holes in his education if she has to kill someone to do it. She's furious at herself for never noticing, just going along with it. All her intelligence wasted on frivolous pursuits and a crush and no situational awareness. She never wants to be that foolish again. And Sasuke isn't a dreamboat, the epitome of manliness- he's not just a cute boy to obsess over. He's a real person with real issues and she's going to get stronger and she and Naruto are going to help him every step of the way to his goal, because her _stupid_ crush doesn't matter when she has a chance to make a difference and be a genuine friend. In this moment Haruno Sakura hates herself and her behaviour. In this moment something breaks and she vows to keep it broken, never listen to it again, that selfish part of her that's made her so useless and clingy and loud, reduced her to this wailing fangirl when she's the kunoichi of the year. Because Sakura _is_ smart. She's worked hard to be intelligent- and she's always had help from the adults around her. If they won't offer the same help to her teammates _she will do it for them_.

They're hers now, she realises. Her boys. In these few minutes she's gained their trust and devotion and forged a familial tie between all three, and she's realised she desperately wants to be worthy of that bond.  
She takes a deep breath, and they fall together in muttered words, reviewing their strengths and weaknesses without any prompting, like they've been doing this forever.

Sasuke points out some of the huge holes in Naruto's taijutsu, (-Sakura has already stated she will catch him up on bookwork if it kills her- making Naruto wince slightly-) and when the blonde hesitantly admits that Mizuki taught him personally the Uchiha snarls lowly and decides he's going to teach him the style he knows, because the academy is stupid anyway; and everyone has heard by now that Mizuki tried to betray Konoha.

"My henge is solid."

Sasuke and Sakura both whip around to stare at him, simultaneously hissing 'what' with startled expressions.

"It's solid. Iruka was surprised too. Is that... not supposed to happen? I thought that was why it's such a good infiltration technique."

Sakura sputters, one hand moving to rub the side of her head as she devolves into agitated muttering. Sasuke sighs.

"No. Henge is an illusion, an image overlaying you. The fact you can physically change yourself- does that mean your weird naked girl one is physical too?"

Naruto nods sheepishly and Sasuke hums. "We can use this. I don't know how, but we can."

The whiskers stretch as Naruto grins- all he's ever wanted is to be useful, needed. The thought that he can contribute to his team? It fills him with warmth.

"How dense is your chakra?!" Sakura hisses, still utterly confused. "The amount required to change your body on a physical level-" she descends into more muttering. "You must have obscene amounts of it too. No wonder you have trouble with the basic bunshin! You're always overloading it- I'm going to teach you all of the chakra control exercises I know." Naruto blinks. Sasuke grunts. "She's right. You never attend that lesson."

He shrugs, smiling nervously. "Oops?" Then he pauses. "You guys... really want to teach me? I know I'm not very smart, and I don't want to be a bother-"

Sakura whacks him upside the head and he yelps, pouting. "Dummy! You're our teammate. We aren't leaving you behind. N-not again, not know we know you've been held back. Besides, there are things you can teach us too. Like your pranking skills. They make great traps. And how you evade Anbu! I saw them chasing you once! And everyone complains about being unable to catch you."

Naruto grins. "That's easy. You just gotta turn fast. The anbu are really used to that fast moving jutsu they use, but you can only go straight with it- but if you get good at turning really abruptly without losing speed they overshoot and miss you! And if you don't telegraph your moves they don't know which way you're turning til the last minute. It helps if you don't know either." He admits sheepishly.

Sasuke looks like he's committing this to memory, eyes narrowed. "Hmm. So, we'd need to practice that." He murmurs, ignoring the add on at the end.

Naruto looks like he's about to explode with excitement.

He's so eager. How can anyone refuse a student so eager to be taught? She smiles at him as Sasuke sits up, but they all stay very close. "This is going to be good. We all have things to teach each other, and then Kakashi can teach us all even more." She chirps happily.

"Hn."

"That's Uchiha for 'I agree'." She snickers; and watches in a mix of awe and disbelief as Sasuke hides a tiny smile at the teasing.

Naruto uncharacteristically stays quiet, though she knows he saw the smile too. Maybe this is good, she thinks. Maybe this will be the thing that drives them all to be amazing ninja.

"Sakura. Your marks in taijutsu are average. While I'm teaching Naruto the Uchiha interceptor style, we should spar in the academy style. You need to improve your speed and strength." Sasuke hums, back to the calm, brusque attitude he's known for. Sakura nods, accepting his reasoning as advice, not a personal attack, when once she would have wilted under the perceived disdain. It's funny how quickly things can change in the space of one conversation.

Naruto hums. "Well, if she needs practice with stamina and strength and stuff, I can spam clones at her until she falls over, and then keep doing that til she gets better." He shrugs one shoulder and Sasuke considers it with a slow blink.

"What do you mean?" Sakura frowns. "Clones aren't physical."

The blonde's lips part in a feral grin, knowing and cheerful. "I know the kage bunshin. It's why the Hokage let me graduate under special circumstances."

Sakura looks at Sasuke, his grave expression reassuring her that they _will_ be bringing up the how's and why's of Naruto knowing a forbidden jutsu up later.

"It _would_ improve your own experience with the style I'll be teaching you... against different opponents you'll learn quicker." Sasuke nods, and Naruto lights up with another smile.

...

Another hour later, Kakashi turns up at the training ground to find a complete and utter shift in dynamics to the students in front of him. His expression almost morphs into shock, though the mask would hide it from their untrained eyes anyway- and then he just watches for a minute as the children discuss something eagerly. They keep reaching out to each other, he notes; Naruto brushes against Sasuke's arm and Sakura squeezes Naruto's leg where her hand rests on his knee. Sasuke's fingers just barely brush at Sakura's dress; and Kakashi wonders what on earth could have happened to flip their behaviour so drastically. He notes the red eyes they all sport- even Sasuke, who's file is stuffed full of comments on his lack of emotion, and he only becomes more confused.

"Hello! How are my little students feeling today?"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto and Sakura point, twin glares on their face, and even Sasuke scowls up at him as they all rise and stand.

"Maa, so sorry. This lady turned over her shopping cart, you see, so I had to help her, and then a black cat crossed my path-"

"Yeah right!" Naruto shouts. "I know you spend all your time by that big stone at the graveyard! You're just making excuses!"

Sakura scrunches her face. "You mean the memorial stone?"

"Yeah, that one!"

Kakashi clears his throat, genuinely uncomfortable. He'd thought his movements not well known to academy students, or even chuunin and down, and it's concerning that Naruto is aware of this.

Sakura and Sasuke both fix gimlet eyes on him, assessing, and that will come in handy for pinpointing weak spots on enemies but to have it turned on him is off-putting.

"Why do you spend so much time there, sens-"

"Right! It's time for your test!" He barks abruptly, cutting Sakura off, and all three of them startle slightly at his sudden volume. He walks over and slaps an alarm clock down on one of the taijutsu posts nearby. "I have these bells. You are to retrieve them from my person before the alarm sounds in... hmm, two hours. If you do not come at me with the intent to kill, you will not succeed." He dangles the bells in front of him, letting them all get a good look.

"There's only two." Sakura pipes up, and Kakashi nods. "That's right- only two of you will pass my test. The one without a bell gets sent back to the academy."

There's an uncomfortable silence.

"I'll go back. Take Sakura and Sasuke. Another year won't hurt me." Naruto steps forward, expression closed and eyes cold. "They deserve to go forward."

Sakura stomps her foot, and the expression of murderous rage on Sasuke's face genuinely takes Kakashi by surprise. "We aren't going to do your stupid test. We pass together, or we all go back." He snarls, and Sakura nods determinedly. Naruto smiles in a shy way. "It's ok, I don't mind you guys-"

"No! No his test is stupid. I don't want a stupid sensei. I'd rather try again next year with you." Sakura hisses, gesturing at the watching jounin, and her vitriol is impressive. Is that a hint of killing intent in the air?

Naruto looks close to happy tears, overwhelmed by the devotion his two friends are showing him, and Kakashi can't help it.

He laughs.

Naruto sputters, taken aback, and Sakura blinks, confused. Only Sasuke pauses, realisation colouring his expression.

"That's what you wanted us to do. It was a test of teamwork."

Kakashi nods, still laughing. "Amazing! You didn't even have to fight- you passed straight away! I've been waiting for a team like you. Welcome to team seven, my three little genin! I'm your new sensei, Hatake Kakashi- and I am most definitely looking forward to teaching you everything I know about being a ninja."

Naruto lets out an excited whoop, jumps in the air with a grin on his face. "Yes! We _passed_!"

Sakura and Sasuke share a smile, and then each of them grab one of Naruto's arms to try and keep him on the ground.

Kakashi chuckles at the sight they make, restraining the excited blonde.

"We will meet here tomorrow at 7, for our first team training session!" Sakura smiles at him, about to respond, and then Sasuke mutters something about them all eating together and Naruto abruptly drags them off to Ichiraku's, leaving dust in his wake.

Kakashi watches them go with a sense of pride and anticipation blooming in his chest-

And then his amusement fades. Whoever made the profiles of these academy students was either incompetent, or something is missing from his information on them. He eyes the training ground around him absently, fingers straying to the pouch he keeps his book in, tapping erratically. There's no sign of a fight, or even evidence that more than the three students have been here in the past few days. So what prompted the change?

His eye narrows. From everything he's read on them, Sakura is shallow and obsessed with Sasuke, who's emotionless and unattached to anyone or anything. Naruto is considered a gibbering idiot, but he showed restraint and the ability to prioritise his teammates over himself, when he's supposed to be incredibly jealous of Sasuke, and fawning over Sakura. And the other two were _devotedly loyal_ , even at the cost of their own promotions. Sasuke especially is slated to desire a quick rise in power even at the cost of his peers.

It simply doesn't add up to what he saw today. Yesterday, on the roof of the school? Absolutely.

So what happened between then and now? He lets out a quiet breath and pulls out his book, forcing himself to put the thoughts away, compartmentalise like any good shinobi. He'll find out eventually. Hell, he could probably ask them.

With a whirl of chakra and a flutter of leaves, the training ground is utterly empty.

...

:Unbeta'd as usual, if there's an words capped with / / it was meant to be italicised, my app doesn't let me do that so I gotta edit them in later.:


	2. Chapter 2

:I couldn't wait to post the second chapter because I'm really excited about finally getting this out onto my page,,, sorry. Also there will be NO ROMANCE between Sasuke Sakura and Naruto. This is a platonic Team Seven story. And no Kakashipping... Gross:

...  
...

Sakura slips out of the window with all the grace expected of a budding kunoichi, giving another look to the bunshin in the bed- unless they touch it, it will stand up to her parents inspections if they check on her during the night. She doesn't even hesitate or look back as she starts running down the road, eager to get to her destination, two books held to her chest as she sticks to the shadows of her civilian neighbourhood.

...

She takes a breath, her usual red dress replaced with a sturdy shirt and shorts in a dull green, the sash wound around her waist a splash of red she didn't quite want to part with. She tightens her grip on the books she's cradling to her chest, hair pulled up and out of the way. She has nothing to look pretty for today. She doesn't think she will for a long time; because Sasuke and Naruto don't care what she looks like. She's beginning to realise that she doesn't either, beyond her own personal comfort and preferences. They only care about what she can do; and how they can help her. It's reassuring in a way she hasn't experienced before. Her mother always fusses over her appearance, her father makes comments about how feminine she looks, what a good daughter she is. (What a good wife she'll make.) She takes another quick look up and down the dark street in front of the imposing wall and gates enclosing the empty Uchiha compound.  
Well, almost empty. She knocks softly, and waits a moment before it's pulled open enough for her to enter. Naruto grins at her, and she thanks him quietly before he ushers her over to a training ground- and she's always known the Uchiha were a huge clan; but to actually be inside the grounds is near overwhelming. She carefully ignores the scorch marks on the houses nearby, instead smiling when Sasuke nods in greeting.

They all sit, and she's pleased to note Naruto is wearing barely any orange, though the clothes look a little big for him, dark blue shorts and matching short sleeved jacket over the splash of colour that is his shirt.

"Where did those come from?" She asks, curious, and Naruto grins. "Sasuke gave them to me! He told me I needed more shinobi-like clothes but the shops don't sell anything to me, I found my jumpsuits out the back about to be thrown away because no one wanted them, and he went inside and came out with these! Look, the shirt is even orange! And the pants are much tougher than the jumpsuit, and then he taught me how to do the bandage wrappings on my legs-"

Sasuke interrupts the rambling tangent with - dare she say- an embarrassed grunt, a tinge of pink on his cheeks, though in the light thrown from the lamps around the training ground it's hard to tell.

"Anyway." The dark haired boy mumbles. "You're both in good training clothes. You should wear those to training with our sensei too."

Naruto gains a cheeky look. "Aren't you our sensei right now?"

Sakura snickers. "Yeah, sensei. You're gonna teach us taijutsu!"

After a good minute of glaring (on the part of Sasuke) and soft sniggering (Sakura and Naruto) they calm down and Sakura puts the books in the middle of their little seated circle. "Ok, so I went to the library after we parted ways- I still can't believe you can eat that much ramen- because I still felt really bad about how I've been acting towards you guys- so-" she points to one with a thick leather cover. "This book is about the Uzumaki clan, and contains information about sealing, which was their speciality, and the bloodlines that occurred in their clan." Naruto's eyes go wide.

"I actually snuck into the chuunin section to grab it, so no one knows we have it, ok? So don't let anyone else get a good look at it."

Naruto whispers a thank you, eyes watery as he picks up the book and smiles.

"I also went and found some information that might help all of us." She taps the second book. "The Kage bunshin can transfer memories."

Sasuke's eyes go wide, and she grins.

"Um, what does that mean exactly?" Naruto asks, looking embarrassed and she squashes the ingrained urge to mock him.  
What kind of person did she become in her quest for 'love'?

"Good question! It means say, if your clone reads a book and then dispels itself; you'll remember reading the book, and what you read in it!"

Naruto nods. "That makes sense! When I used them on Mizuki I got lots of different views of it once they poofed- uh, I mean..." he trails off, looking at his teammates awkwardly.

Sasuke hisses. "You mean that traitor sabotaged your taijutsu training and then tried to attack you?! Why?!" Sakura leans back away from the righteously angry Uchiha, eyebrows raised. Naruto fidgets nervously. "I... I can't tell you. I want to- but I'm scared you won't like me anymore, like the rest of the village." His voice gets quieter the more he speaks, eyes averted.

"Naruto, how big is this?" Sakura murmurs. "Something that makes the whole village treat a child so badly, and influence their own children to avoid you... I can't even imagine what would drive them to it. Please tell us?" Her voice is soft, and she rests a hand on his knee, Sasuke leaning closer, gaze intense.

"I... do you know what a jinchuuriki is?" He mumbles, wringing his hands together.

Sasuke shakes his head, but Sakura nods. "I read about them. They're 'human sacrifices'; they have bijuu sealed inside of them. They can even train to use their prisoners powers. Apparently most hidden villages have one. But there wasn't much else. Why?"

Naruto takes a deep breath. Sasuke bares his teeth. "The yondaime didn't kill the Kyuubi. He put it in _you_. He sealed it in an infant!" He stands abruptly, letting out a yell of wordless rage and punching a nearby tree. Sakura stares in horror, brain slowly clicking over into realisation as Naruto jumps to his feet, trying to calm Sasuke down.

"He... he's a hero... the yondaime... how could he..." She throws herself up and tackles the blonde boy, hugging him tightly and nearly toppling the lanky boy with the impact. "The villagers should treat you like a miracle! You saved us all!"

Naruto sputters, overwhelmed by the very intense emotional reactions occurring around him.

Sasuke whirls, snarling. "They're idiots to treat you badly. Idiots!" And then he lunges forward and hugs them both, hands curling in their shirts tightly. "How can they call you a monster and miss the real ones entirely?" He whispers.

They all know who he's talking about.

Naruto starts to cry.

Thirty minutes go by, Naruto quietly telling the true tale of Mizuki's betrayal, the fake test and the brutal reveal, Iruka stepping in; the sheer amount of clones he can produce; (no wonder he has so much chakra, why it's so dense) and they return to sitting around the book. Sakura squeezes Naruto's hand and takes a deep breath. "Alright, so everyone in the village apart from Iruka, the owners of the ramen stand, and the Hokage are idiots. Everyone knows the scroll isn't the kunai sealed into it." She sniffs derisively. "All others have to be proven otherwise, including our new sensei. Now-" she taps the book again. "I don't think Sasuke and I can do the Kage bunshin yet- it's hugely chakra draining and could kill us, because we only have low reserves. So while you're working on control; Sasuke and I will concentrate on increasing our chakra pools. However." She smiles. "You can still learn from your clones, which means we can send messages back and forth between us as long as one of your clones is with us. Not only that, but the fact they're physical acts as excellent backup for all of us if separated." She leans back, grinning proudly. Sasuke nods, impressed, and Naruto lets out a quiet exclamation of excitement. "So- while I'm training tonight I'll have a clone read the book you got me!" He hisses, grinning before quickly forming the hand sign.

With a whispered 'Kage bunshin no jutsu' two clones pop into existence. One immediately settles after a Naruto hands it the book on the Uzumaki, and Sakura notes the excitement on it's face mirroring that of it's creator.

The other points at her. "Right! Come at me with all you have!" She nods, and they move over to a clear space even as Sasuke starts muttering orders and making Naruto practice stances. They're only vaguely familiar to her because of her experience watching Sasuke spar.

"The interceptor style is based around anticipating your opponents movements and reacting before they can complete them. It's designed for a sharingan, so I'm teaching you the secondary version of it, which relies on speed and making your own openings while deflecting instead of blocking and relying on reflexes instead of foreknowledge. Here, come at me and I'll show you-"

His voice fades into the background as she falls into an academy stance, and Naruto's clone bull-rushes forward, blindly, promptly getting smacked in the face. To her great embarrassment, it doesn't pop.

There's a pause.

"Huh." The clone mumbles, blinking in confusion. "Boss's memories usually have your punches and whacks portrayed as, like, _hugely_ painful."

Sakura huffs, face red with embarrassment. "I'll just have to try harder!" She hisses, an old familiar anger swirling up in her even as she pushes it down, irrational and cruel. He's not mocking her. He's helping.

She takes a breath.

...

Around three hours later, two tired genin lay on the ground, panting softly. Sakura had managed to start popping clones with one hit at the end of the second hour, and then she pushed herself further than she thought she could to try and increase her endurance limit. She's rather proud of this, considering the Naruto clones improved every time they poofed and were remade, due to their creator being trained at the same time. Sasuke stares at the sky, wondering how on earth such a kinesthetic learner could have been overlooked. In only three hours his body was automatically falling into the stances he'd just learnt. And then responding with the punches and kicks he hadn't even been actively taught- he'd only copied Sasuke! The Uchiha is utterly stunned. Naruto's shortcomings in book learning are more than made up for with this. He's also exhausted. He blames Naruto's prisoner. There's no way someone has this much energy naturally.

"Hey guys, did you know the Uzumaki are actually really well known for their huge chakra pools, and their incredible stamina?"

Sasuke wants to cry. He can't imagine a whole clan of people as terrifyingly enthusiastic as Naruto is. He considers popping the clone who just spoke out of spite, now returning to the book in it's hands, but then waves the idea off because it involves moving, content to lay there and catch his breath. He's pretty sure he hears Sakura whimper in horror.

Naruto is still fluidly practising stances against a clone, both of them switching between defence and assault. There's no power behind their strikes, simply repeating the motions to memorise them, and getting faster as they go. It reminds Sasuke of Itachi and cousin Shisui when he used to watch them from his bedroom window-

He shuts his eyes tightly. Don't think about it. He's teaching this to Naruto because Naruto needs a good, well rounded taijutsu style, because Sasuke needs a sparring partner to practice against who knows how he fights, and because it feels good to help his teammate. His friend. It's so foreign, but so welcome.

The pain in his chest eases, and he smiles as he listens to Sakura pick herself up and ask for another set of clones, ready to continue.

After a moment her voice pipes up again, and he forces himself to pay attention.

"I just want to say... the academy is behind us. I don't want to be that girl anymore. You guys are my team and I want to _deserve_ that, you know? So I promise I'll never be like that again. Not ever. My crush on Sasuke was silly; my idea of him instead of the actual person he is, and I like your friendship too much to even entertain those thoughts anymore. I can't justify how I've treated you both- as objects instead of people, but I never will again. I just- I just wanted to let you know."

...

Kakashi eyes the three genin glaring up at him. He's only an hour late this time, they should be grateful. He interrupts Sakura before she even has a chance to open her mouth, rapidly taking in the changes in clothes two of them have suddenly made, (a lack of orange jumpsuits and red dresses respectively) and the dark circles under Sasuke and Sakura's eyes. "Hello my cute little students! I was going to start slow but then I decided that's just not fun, so today we are all going to be taking turns sparring and then climbing trees!"

Naruto scrunches up his nose. "We can all climb trees, sensei."

Kakashi wags his finger in the blonde's face, enjoying the way the kid sways backwards away from it, eyes fixed on the appendage warily. "Ah ah, not so fast little genin! Can you do it with chakra?" He pulls away and turns, walking up the trunk of the tree nearest to them. When he's upside down on one of the branches, he smiles at them- though, of course, the only visible thing is the curve of his eye.

Sakura frowns softly. "You're using chakra to stick your feet to the wood. This is a control exercise, right?"

Kakashi jumps down and sticks his hands in his pockets. "Indeed! Not only that, it helps increase your chakra capacity, as anyone with a normal chakra pool will be expelling their chakra at a rate that forces your coils to expand and grow!" He absently notes the determined gleam in all three students eyes. "Sakura, Naruto, you start on the trees. I'll spar with Sasuke, and then I'll swap him out with one of you."

He barely even has the time to get into a ready stance before Naruto skids by, feet smoking and a look of bewilderment on his face. Sasuke snorts in amusement.

"Maa, too much chakra, Naruto. I'm sure Sakura will help you." The jounin inclines his head at the girl already walking up and down the trunk, a look of concentration on her face. He wonders why she's so intent on increasing her chakra capacity. It can't be her control she's trying to improve; in all the reports it's slated to be near perfect, as evidenced by her immediate grasp of the exercise. She grunts out an agreement, and Naruto jumps up eagerly.

Kakashi turns back to his third student, and strangely enough Naruto does not go flying by them again. More evidence he's missing information on his new students.

...

Naruto watches as Sasuke switches with Sakura. There's grass and dirt all over his clothes, but he looks satisfied,and he glances over at Naruto when he senses him looking. "He pointed out things for me to improve, and how to improve them. I'm... pleased. He seems like a good teacher, despite his chronic tardiness." Naruto grins in response and returns to walking up and down the tree. It's more difficult than he expected, mostly because maintaining a steady flow of chakra is extremely difficult. He has to forcibly hold himself back, because it wants to pour out of him, and when he did that he went flying. He hears Sasuke grunt next to him.

He jumps down and helps the other boy up. "Too little and you don't stick. It's pretty hard. You gotta find a balance. I've nearly shot myself across the training ground like, seven times." The other boy offers a slight smile and immediately returns to the tree. Naruto goes back to his as well, but he turns his attention to Sakura and Kakashi as he paces up and down.

The sound of a fist making contact has him wincing slightly, but Kakashi barely even reacts except to slap Sakura's hand away from where it impacted with his jounin vest. Naruto hears him praise her though, and he realises Kakashi is holding himself back in order to show Sakura the right places to hit to inflict the most damage. Sakura nods at something he says, sweat on her brow and the collar of her shirt damp.  
He watches for another half an hour before he realises he's no longer needing to pay attention to his chakra output to stay on the tree. He grins, and starts running up and down instead of walking. Next to him, Sasuke is already doing the same, but instead of the jealousy he almost expects he just feels proud. Because he has more trouble with his control, so it doesn't matter if his teammate gets the grasp of this exercise quicker. He has things he's better at too. That's why they're a team, so they can round each other out.

He stumbles abruptly as information floods his mind, barely catching himself on the surface of the trunk.

He'd henged a clone and had it sneak into the library this morning under Sakura's suggestion, and once it finishes a book it makes a new clone and poofs itself. The cycle continues, but Naruto is very much aware of even his clone's dislike of reading. Books are just so boring.

Sakura had pounded their importance into his head though, even as she sparred with his clones. And he's really enjoyed reading the book about the Uzumaki she gave him.

He has another clone sneaking into the higher ranked fuinjutsu sections and smuggling out books about the basics to take back to his apartment for 'independent study'. Because if he really _i_ _s_ Uzumaki, maybe he'll be able to grasp that bit of heritage.

He nearly falls off the tree again when Sakura calls him to come down, startling him out of his thoughts and laughing at him as he briefly flails with a grumpy pout, fingers digging into the bark as he crouches in a way that directly defies gravity. "I nearly fell headfirst into the ground!" He grouches, but she just sits by the base of the tree to catch her breath, sweating profusely and looking exhausted. He sends her a worried look, but she just gives him a thumbs up, and he exchanges glances with Sasuke. The nod the quiet boy gives him reassures him, knowing his teammate will make sure Sakura doesn't push herself too hard.

Apparently Kakashi thinks he's taking too long, because he's grabbed by the collar and tugged further out into the grassy clearing. He yelps and squirms around til the tall ninja drops him unceremoniously.

"Rude!" Naruto huffs, popping back up and brushing grass off his new clothes. (A present, just like the book Sakura snuck out for him. Special.)

Kakashi just lashes out with a punch, and Naruto blocks before changing to a deflection hurriedly, arms moving to one of the stances he only learnt last night. It feels fluid and good, and he manages to divert the arm heading for his face; but he still needs practice, because Kakashi exploits a small break in the form and he skids back on his feet as he's kicked in the stomach. He wheezes for a moment, then pulls himself together.

"Why aren't you using your clones to overwhelm me? I know you can make a rather large amount of them."

Naruto nods. "Yeah, but doing that won't always work if all they do is flail around. I gotta get better at hand to hand before I try spamming people with them. Otherwise they're just cannon fodder." He grins. "Sakura taught me that phrase!" He chirps, then hurriedly deflects a palmstrike.

"Interesting. When did Sasuke start teaching you the Uchiha style?"

"Last night!"

Kakashi's eye widens, then narrows. The proficiency Naruto is displaying, while admittedly on the level of a beginner, is still far too advanced to have only just started learning. He files this information away for later, wondering why his student would lie to him.

Naruto tries a jab to the ribs and Kakashi uses the opening to get Naruto into a throw. The boy lands on his feet, impressively, and then falls into a defensive stance rather than rushing blindly forward. One day's tutoring has resulted in this? Kakashi is very very skeptical. Though it's possible Sakura has been drilling him on tactics. The girl's book knowledge is unparalleled. But Naruto's reports and profile all mark him as thick headed and slow to absorb information. If these reports have been falsified or if the academy has been _lying_ about the potential of one of their graduates, Kakashi is going to be beyond furious.

He blocks three strikes and sweeps Naruto's legs out from under him at a chuunin- level pace. Naruto manages to jump over it, barely, and Kakashi nods approvingly before setting into exploiting and then correcting all his openings.

Naruto is still bouncing around an hour later, but Kakashi is finished sparring with his students. Sasuke and Naruto have both asked him how he knows the interceptor style so well, and he's deflected both times simply because even the smallest truth is painful. Sakura had to be pried away from the tree before she collapsed to chakra exhaustion, and now his students are all sat in front of him, a mixture of determination, exhaustion, and enthusiasm.

"Right! I think I'll take you all to lunch before we take our first official mission as team seven!"

"No. Ramen." Sasuke deadpans before Naruto even opens his mouth, and the blonde pouts, crossing his arms and sulking. Sakura hums. "Food sounds good. But I agree with Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei. No ramen- _please_." Naruto pouts harder.

Kakashi leads them into town with his book up by his face and watches them as they chat in front of him. Even now Sasuke and Naruto seem to gravitate towards each other and Sakura, and he wonders what she did to make them display that level of commitment. He's pleased to note no romantic overtures on anyone's part, which is satisfying, as he was not looking forward to trying to retrain a rabid fangirl, or break Naruto of his crush on said fangirl. Love triangles are only amusing in literature.

He motions for them to stop and follow him into a barbecue joint, and everything is going fine as they seat themselves right up until the waiter approaches.

"Jounin-san, I'm afraid we have to ask you and your... students... to leave. We don't serve _that_ boy. If you wish to return without him, we will happily welcome you as customers."

Naruto's face falls into a carefully blank expression, and Sakura looks indignant, gaze whipping between the civilian waiter and her sensei in mute horror. Sasuke's grip on the table is getting dangerously close to cracking the wood.

Kakashi clears his throat, puts his book down, the epitome of calm.

"Waiter-san, I'm suddenly made _incredibly_ aware of the very very tentative flexibility of a certain law our beloved Hokage has put in place. It seems to me that the behaviour of this establishment is... shall we say, perilously close to breaking said law, and as a jounin I am well within my rights to enforce the punishment assigned to breaking it... which as you know is _immediate execution_." His eye curves upwards as he smiles, and the poor man whimpers as oppressive killing intent batters down on the entire room. Everything goes quiet, shinobi and civilian customers alike too scared to move and draw attention to themselves.

"I-I'll get menus straight away, Jounin-san." The man bows, scurries away, and Kakashi reels in the murderous aura with a satisfied little smile. As he returns his attention to his students, he's momentarily overwhelmed by the deep look of gratitude in Naruto's eyes.

"That was awesome! For a sensei who reads porn in public and is always late, you're actually really cool!" The blonde chirps, and Sakura sputters.

"Porn- you mean that book is- sensei!" She gasps, outraged, and the menus are put down by a different but no less intimidated server.

"Maa, now now children. A man must have his vices." His book returns to his pocket and he picks up the menu. "Alright, pick what you want, I'll shout this time, my cute little genin." He eye-smiles at them over the top of the menu, and giggles as Sakura glares at him.

He notes than none of them question this 'law' he used against the waiter. Is it possible that they know, or did they simply miss it?

No. Very unlikely. Sasuke is too perceptive to not question the relevance of a law involving the treatment of a teammate, and there were no signs of surprise from any of them during his... _conversation_.

A little while after they've ordered his 'cute little genin' start whispering amongst themselves, and he gives them the courtesy of not reading their lips. They keep throwing glances at him, mouths pursed and brows furrowed in thought. Eventually Sasuke nods and Sakura turns back to him.

"Sensei. After our mission would you come with us to Sasuke's clan compound? We... could use your help with some independent training." Kakashi raises an eyebrow, but inclines his head as the plates of food are put down. He's pleased to note that Naruto's is no different to anyone else's, subtly casting a jutsu under the table and further pleased to note a distinct lack of poison.

"If my cute little students need help I am happy to give it!"

All three relax and move to eat, and Kakashi wonders exactly why they were so hesitant to ask in the first place.

...

...

:Kakashi is actually one of my all time fave characters of any anime; and I still get pissed when I remember exactly how nerfed he got when he's _considered Kage level in power._ Not only is he hella powerful he's got Batman levels of tactical intelligence, and I only stan good sensei in this house, sorry :/ ... :


	3. Chapter 3

:Wow I am HYPED. This chapter is dedicated to the memory of my best friend... You aren't dead, you're just in France and I miss you.:

...

...

Kakashi would have thought Sasuke to be extremely reluctant to welcome anyone into the eerily quiet clan grounds- of which the genin is the only resident- but the ease of which he invites his entire team to use it is in direct opposition of that assumption. The thought swirls around his head for a second, and then his eye widens slightly. It makes more sense if you look at it from the perspective of a kid; not wanting to be alone in the middle of a veritable suburb of empty houses tainted by death. He brushes it off as his own memories bubble threateningly at the back of his mind, (a child alone in a dead house) and focuses on his paint splattered, grumbling students as they trudge along in front of him, moaning about the D-rank he'd had them do.

"The old lady kept muttering about me from the back porch! If I ever have do to a chore for her again I'm gonna-"

"She said I was too pretty to be a ninja! Too pretty! Not even as a compliment! Why do my looks have any bearing on my competence! Why I outta-"

"-Orange paint all over her precious fence-"

"-Teach her a thing or two; see how pretty I am when I pin her _stupid flowers_ to her wall with kunai-"

"Hn."

The Uchiha successfully stops the overlapping rants of his louder teammates, who both pause and stare at him before pouting and falling silent.

Kakashi suppresses a chuckle.

"Ah, surely it wasn't that bad! D-ranks are very necessary missions! Not only do they help the economy and the civilians with their less dangerous problems, it also encourages teamwork!" He hums, peering over his book at them. Sakura clenches her fist for a moment before sighing.

"Still, sensei. It's not cool. I thought we'd be beating up bad guys and saving people!" Naruto whines, and Sakura hums.

"I mean, I guess. I don't like it, but I think Kakashi-sensei is right. We do need more time and training before we can be absolutely sure we'll survive on a C-rank against bandits or something, right? Better well-trained and safe than sorry." She still looks mildly petulant.

Sasuke takes this moment to include his own thoughts on the matter.

"She tried to pinch my cheek. And give me sweets. I hate sweets."

Kakashi giggles. He can't wait for them to meet Tora.

All three students throw him a wary glare before facing forwards as the streets narrow and get quieter, the four of them approaching the Uchiha district.

Naruto seems deep in thought, occasionally throwing glances back at the jounin who pretends not to notice. The blonde squints, fiddles with the fabric of his shorts before facing forward again, repeating the cycle every so often. Sakura seems tense, wary, and Sasuke is the only one who seems at ease- again, surprising. His genin are not at all what he expected, what their teachers painted a picture of. He assumed he was being saddled with a dead end, the council hoping he'd take them simply because Naruto is his sensei's son, Sasuke the last link to Obito there is, and Sakura a (rather painful) try at a 'reminder' of Rin.  
But Hatake Kakashi isn't a washed up fool. If they'd failed, nothing would have convinced him to take them. The fact that they succeeded so easily- intriguing, and a stroke of luck for the council members who want Sasuke to have 'special treatment'. Not that he's _actually_ going to be treated any differently than his teammates; because Kakashi doesn't believe in favouritism.

He's never liked the council; never bothered to take the empty Hatake seat after his father died- he's a soldier, not a politician, despite the Hokage eyeing him up as a potential successor. He doesn't want the hat, the pretty lies and the back and forth without going anywhere, achieving anything.  
Sasuke pushes open the gates to the clan grounds and Kakashi puts away his book out of respect- it is, after all, something of a memorial itself, this empty compound.  
At some point during the walk a tense silence has fallen over all of them, and while Sasuke closes the gate Sakura and Naruto motion him over to the centre of one of the training grounds where they all sit. He indulges them, perching cross-legged on the ground, and Sasuke joins them momentarily.

Sakura takes a breath.

"Naruto told us. About his... prisoner? Status? Medical condition?" She waves a hand helplessly. "I have no clue what the right term is. We were worried maybe you'd be biased against him. But you don't seem to care at all, and you stood up for him, so we've added you to the list." At this point Sasuke puts a book, a notepad and a pen in the centre of their little circle. After a long look, Naruto pulls a book out and adds it to the pile. He recognises it as a history book on Uzushio and the Uzumaki clan.

From the chuunin section.

Oh, his little genin are already so sneaky!

Sasuke hums slightly.

"We have all the people who know but don't treat Naruto badly in this notepad. We also have those in power who have purposely treated him badly or otherwise sabotaged him, and those who have either tried to bribe me or seem intent on using me for their own designs as the clan heir."

Naruto pipes up. "We want to be strong enough to protect each other. We want to be able to deny these people what they want- me dead or controlled; Sasuke under their thumb, no matter their political position or power."

Sakura seems proud, and Kakashi wonders if she's been tutoring him on more than just the ninja arts.

"So you want my help as your sensei." He hums. "Both in collecting certain... we'll say 'information', and running you ragged with training. You three certainly are driven. You know the other genin won't start on tree climbing for at least a week? And you want to push even harder." He rubs his chin, three hopeful gazes on him as he ponders this.

He doesn't like politics- but these three could become terrors in that world in their own rights, especially once Naruto is informed of his heritage. The sooner he's strong enough that an assassination attempt from Iwa would be easily defended against, the sooner that information can be released to the public. (How the civilians and ninja who mistreated this sunshine boy will squirm, knowing his father is their beloved hero.)

And a civilian raised child would have sway with the civilian council members, a symbol of success; of not needing the backing of a clan to succeed as a powerful kunoichi.

And of course, the genius last Uchiha.

He finds he really wants to see his students wreak havoc on all those arrogant pricks; on Danzo too when they slip out of every hold he tries to put on them.

"If you really want this, you have to trust me. If something is too hard, I don't want you injuring yourself trying to achieve it. You will come talk to me about it, and we will work out stepping stones to that goal instead. There's no shame in that. You will eat what I tell you to. No diets-" he glances at Sakura, who blushes, ashamed "-and no overindulging in ramen." Naruto scowls but nods. "You will sleep seven hours a night. I will have you all day, for all three meals. Sakura, I will talk to your parents about this arrangement. I'm sure they'll agree." He leaves the 'if they try to disagree I will politely change their minds' out of it. They've started nodding along now, determined. There's hesitation in all of them, which is expected, but they're ignoring it, pushing forward despite it.

"I'm going to train you to within an inch of your lives. By the time the chuunin exams roll around you will be low-jounin level. But we will have no secrets. Do you understand? I want to hear every worry, every complaint. If you hurt yourself doing the exercises I assign you then they're pointless. If you want to focus on a certain strength or weakness, talk to me and I will adjust your training accordingly."

Sakura and Sasuke nod fiercely, and Naruto starts to- then stops, a grin splitting his face.

"I knew I recognised you!" He crows. "Doggy!" He launches himself forward, the topic change throwing everyone off guard, and Kakashi grunts as he catches the blonde boy, automatically, gathering him into his arms- oh. Oh, what?

Sakura makes a questioning noise, and Naruto turns to grin at her. "He's one of the masked ones who used to take me home or to jiji when people would get angry or chase me. He even took me for yakiniku on my birthday once. He had a dog mask, and his hair was black, I think, but he smells the same and he moves the same way too. So he's doggy! So he's definitely trustworthy." Naruto nods like he's spoken the gospel truth and Kakashi's heart aches briefly, because these children are asking to be made into trained killers at such tender ages and he remembers scooping an even smaller Naruto out of the arms of an angry mob on his birthday only for the child to cling to him with relief.

Sasuke makes a startled noise. "You were anbu?" His eyes shine, impressed. Sakura seems to perk up. "That means you'll know several of the forbidden scroll techniques. I read that all anbu are taught them when they are initiated into the corps. So- you can teach us how to use the Kage bunshin effectively!" She snatches up the notepad, mumbling about 'training specifics'. He leans over, Naruto still octopused around him, though the boy has somehow ended up clinging to his back instead. She has three columns on the page, neat handwriting jotting down dot points with aspects of training she thinks each of them need.

 _Kakashi_ needs a nap, he thinks, as Naruto engages in a conversation about how he- turns while running?- with an interested Sasuke, who doesn't seem to care that he's talking to someone clinging to a fully grown adult like a stuffed toy.

He can feel Minato laughing at him from beyond the grave, relentlessly amused at the newest of 'saddled with kids'. Gai is going to have a field day, he muses, and his student's eagerness means he's going to have to start training more too. Maybe he'll meet up with some of his old anbu buddies to keep his skills that extra bit sharp.

Yeah, he's got no doubt this is going to be an intense experience. But he welcomes it, because he has a chance to atone for so many mistakes and help these children, be there for them like he couldn't be when Naruto was a child, when all anbu were ordered not to interfere with the smoke rising from the Uchiha compound.

Mark his words, these are his kids now. And team seven will surpass the Sannin if he has to die to make it happen. He's not letting another team down.

He can't. Not this one. Not _his_ team seven.

...

...

:This chapter is a good bit shorter than the other two but still important.:


	4. Chapter 4

:Holy shit this is like, the most reviews I have ever gotten in such a short span of time, goddamn you guys go HARD and I love you all! Responses to reviews are below this chapter bc some of ya'll have PMs turned off... Curses bc I love conversing with ya'll:

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...

"What?" Naruto asks, wide eyes innocent and confused and Kakashi could tear his hair out. This just isn't fair. The whole point of having a genin team is karmic justice, right? Sadistic enjoyment of the next generation suffering just as you did.  
The devil cat herself, the source of his anguish, purrs happily and rubs her head against Naruto's cheek, kneading at his jacket. He smiles and scratches behind her ear, and she purrs louder.

"All the D rank missions you have us take are easy. Annoying sometimes, but easy."

"Tora is a demon! You- no genin has ever gotten her unscathed! The mission record is _two hours_ to catch and retrieve her!" He points at the boy, eye twitching in aggravation. Naruto shrugs.

"She used to keep me company sometimes when I would walk around at night. I thought she was a stray. I called her Button." He mumbles, clueless. "Animals always like me. Even the Inuzuka ninken do."

Sakura and Sasuke exchange a look.

...

Two hours later, Naruto lets out a sound dangerously close to a whimper, his previously inexhaustible energy pushed to its limits; blue eyes staring up at an equally blue sky as he lays on his back in the middle of the training ground. Kunai, shuriken, and even senbon littering the grass around him, with the occasional thin needle visibly being pushed ever so slowly out of his skin. _Thanks, inner furball_.  
All three genin had learned within a week to dread that eye-smile, the clap of the hands and cheerful voice of their sensei right before he assigns them another torturous exercise to complete, drags them off to speed run five D-ranks within an hour or be forced to run laps around the village with the two screaming green people. This particular one was an 'accuracy improver' that Kakashi cheerfully proclaimed as fun and not at all terrifying. Naruto never wants to encounter Kakashi's idea of scary, if this is enjoyable to the jounin.

He'd been shoved in the middle of the training ground with a full brace of kunai and shuriken and his three teammates had gone ham on him with their own throwing weapons. The catch? He could only deflect them, throw his own and hit the oncoming weapons midair, or dodge and catch them by the handles to throw them back- especially difficult when it's a shuriken, because those are spiky death all over, and senbon, thin and hard to spot til they're in your flesh causing you pain.

He's pretty sure stationary targets any larger than a thimble will never be difficult again though.  
He's also pretty sure this is Kakashi's way of getting back at him for not having any trouble catching that cat. It's a perfectly nice cat. He has no idea why Kakashi was so mad.

Sakura wanders over, picking up her weapons as she goes, putting them away in her pouches before sitting down next to him. "Naruto, I thought I'd die before you finally fell over. My arms feel like noodles. I've thrown so many kunai my fingers are raw."

Naruto manages a pout.

"Good! I have so many senbon in me I look like a _discount porcupine_! And I would have like, a billion cuts if not for my healing. You guys didn't go easy on me at all." He grumbles. "I'm glad you suffered too."

In retaliation she yanks a senbon out of his shoulder, making him yelp as she turns and hands it to Sasuke, just arriving behind her. He murmurs a thanks as Naruto sits up.

"I hate Kakashi for introducing you to senbon. So much. Your eyes are already fancy enough, they shouldn't give you such an edge with throwing weapons too." Naruto sits up with a glare at the other boy, Sakura ignoring them both with the ease of practice as she sharpens a particularly blunt kunai. Sasuke smirks in that particularly insufferable way of his and Naruto finds the energy to tackle him, and they roll around on the grass for a moment til the handle of a kunai whacks against their heads. They yelp, and Naruto turns the puppy dog eyes on Sakura, standing over them with her arms crossed, spinning the offending weapon on a finger. "Really? You're going to wrestle?"

The boys share a look, and she lets out a high pitched yelp as they grab her by the arms and tug her into their free for all.

Kakashi chooses this moment to intervene, shunshining directly next to them and showering them with leaves. One gets in Sasuke's open mouth and he splutters hilariously, expression scrunched in horror and surprise. Sakura and Naruto both pause in their tumbling fight, look at him then back to each other as Sasuke finally manages to spit out the leaf, and laugh.

Sasuke helplessly joins in after failing to maintain an aloof glare, and Kakashi shamelessly enjoys the sight of his students happily gleeful and carefree.

Time to crush their joy!

He claps his hands together and the laughing stops near instantly, six eyes staring warily at him; from children playing in the sun to startled animals ready to fight or flee.

"How are we all doing with water walking? I assume you've been practicing on your own while I'm busy in town." Naruto jumps up, face eager. "I can walk consistently, and run across the surface four times out of five now, and Sakura is helping with that! She and Sasuke have started spinning leaves and sparring on the water too." He beams with pride, and Kakashi watches the other two children's faces soften with affection. It's hard _not_ to love Naruto once you get past the pranks and the social stigma- he's ridiculously honest and open and genuinely cares for his friends, and there's no jealousy or rivalries left between the three anymore. (Kakashi is eternally grateful he didn't have to deal with that mess; Minato really must be looking out for him). If one of them struggles, the others help. If one excels, they assist the others, and the others encourage and support.

The chuunin exams are already set in stone, and he will be paying someone to take photos of the expressions of his fellow jounin-sensei when their kids are crushed by his.  
Maybe he's the one with the rivalries. Huh.

"Sakura, how are you doing with the genjutsu I taught you?" He hums. She steps forward obediently, and he's pleased to note Naruto step back to Sasuke's side, as professional as a report to the Hokage himself. "I've mastered it as fully as possible without personal instruction; and taken the liberty of teaching Sasuke as well. Naruto tried it, but he cannot lower his chakra output enough. I suggest giving him A ranked and higher genjutsu to start with and then working him down to lower ranked ones as a control exercise. It wouldn't hurt to have someone able to throw nastier, complex ones around. And no one will ever overwhelm his chakra, so breaking them will be even more difficult than usual." She rambles a bit, but is still effective and concise enough that he won't criticise it today.

"Very good." He hums. "I'll procure some scrolls with higher ranked illusions for you all to learn. I expect all of you to get them down to an acceptable level of mastery within the next two weeks." Sakura nods firmly, goes to step back- pauses.

"Ano, sensei, I took the liberty of enrolling myself in the medical program's waiting list for after I reach chuunin, but I was wondering if you had any scrolls I could start with, you know, to get an edge?" She looks up at him hopefully. He smiles.

"Good thinking. If I could I'd have all of you learn iryoujutsu, as it can be invaluable in the heat of battle. In fact, there's a taijutsu style associated with it that would suit your slimmer frame perfectly, Sakura." The female genin looks ready to punch a tree out of violent excitement. "I'll bring them tomorrow. This style is not for sparring with at full power. It's designed for killing or debilitating blows, and is one of the reasons only chuunin are allowed to enrol in the program. I expect you to behave as professionally as one while learning this. And not to tell anyone you're learning it." He warns, and she falls into seriousness, nodding and stepping back. Sasuke steps forward, Naruto quietly congratulating Sakura on finally being able to upgrade from the academy style with a grin on his face. She's been working relentlessly on improving her strength and stamina, and Kakashi sees no reason to withhold useful techniques from her when she's clearly ready for them.

Sasuke squares his shoulders, but it's not defensive in intent, more an expression of pride in himself. Kakashi smiles, because all three of his students deserve that pride; with how dedicated they are, how hard they work. Oh, they whine and complain, but it's more teasing fun than genuine disgruntlement.

"Sasuke, your senbon work is improving rapidly. There are scrolls on exercising your eyes before your sharingan has become active- sounds weird, I know- in your clan compound. I'd assume with your father's things." His voice softens. "If you wish, I'm sure we can accompany you to retrieve them."

He clears his throat. "You've expressed an interest in wire work and long range attacks including the ninjutsu you were taught by your family, preferring to leave the close quarters combat to your teammates, and I think this suits you perfectly. Not only will it catch enemies off guard if they get close, with your formidable taijutsu, it allows you to subtly direct and point your teammates into strategic positions and attack formations. Sakura has excellent book knowledge and Naruto has fantastic reflexes and instincts, but your situational awareness is a great asset to any team leader in the case of their jounin sensei being absent. I've discussed this with your teammates, and we all agree on this. Do you accept this role?" Sasuke's eyes shine with a mix of bewilderment and awe, and he nods harshly, then turns, hesitant. "You guys really trust me to guide you in battle?"

His voice is nearly a whisper.

His answer comes in the form of tight hugs, Naruto teasingly (and loudly) berating him for not believing what their sensei says.

Kakashi forgives the slip in mission report protocol, because they are only genin, and they're already far ahead of any other he knows, excluding perhaps Rock Lee taijutsu-wise. He doesn't want to push them too hard- though they try to insist on it sometimes. He's forcibly dragged Naruto from the sparring posts and put him to bed several times this week alone, has to check in at the compound to make sure Sasuke is sleeping, and he's promised that if he finds one more bunshin in Sakura's bed while she sneaks out and into the library he's giving her eternal D ranks. Who knew being a sensei equated to babysitting?

He interrupts their chatter with another clap, and they all fall into a ready stance, hands clasped behind their backs, as neat as ducks in a row. It's cute.

"I have here-" he pauses, fiddles with a pouch and pulls out three paper squares "-something I think you'll all find very interesting, as it will mark the start of _me_ teaching you ninjutsu. This in no way means I will let you slack off on tai or genjutsu. Or throwing weapons." He throws an amused glance at the training ground and the clones - when were they made?- picking across it to remove all the discarded kunai. "It does, however, mean you get to know your elemental affinities!" He says cheerily, and holds the papers out. They all take one, Naruto squinting at his curiously.

"Hey, this is that stuff that you're supposed to push chakra into right? I saw some younger chuunin with them once. It was really cool, one of them caught himself on fire. It was really funny." He grins, caught up in the memory, and Sakura whacks him lightly on the arm, trying to hide her smile.

"Focus, Naru."

She turns to her paper and they all watch, intrigued as it turns to dust in her hand. She yelps and tries to catch it, but the wind blows it away and into Naruto's face. They watch, highly amused, as he splutters and wipes his face clean with a scowl.

"Anyway! That means you have an earth affinity, Sakura. Earth is primarily a defensive nature, which works well with your tendency to act as close combat backup and your desire to be a healer rather than the initial front line assault. There are of course offensive techniques that I'm sure you'll put to good use. We have quite a few scrolls from Iwa that should be helpful to you." He turns to Sasuke as the boy's paper crinkles (the Uchiha is surprisingly impatient sometimes) and his eyebrow raises in surprise. "Most Uchiha have Fire affinities. This is excellent; I have a lightning affinity as well. I will be able to personally teach you many jutsus, whereas with Sakura I'll have to rely on scrolls and my knowledge of secondary affinities." Sasuke nods, a pleased smile on his face as he looks to Naruto. The blonde gives him a congratulatory thumbs up and turns to his own paper, bouncing slightly. "Oh man, I hope mine is as cool as you guys-"

He yelps as the paper splits in half in his hand only to be abruptly engulfed in a tiny inferno.

"It didn't burn that much when the chuunin did it!" He yelps, waving his hands wildly and stomping the ashy embers into the ground.

Sakura turns to Kakashi, eyes wide. "Sensei, does Naruto have two affinities?" She chirps, and he nods quietly.

Naruto picks up on the tense silence the jounin is radiating and looks down. "It's... probably because of my _condition_ , right?"

He jumps when a hand lands on his head, ruffling his hair. He looks up and Kakashi smiles. "Don't worry about it! Wind and fire are excellent partners, as they enhance each other massively when used together. It's even possible you could create a special release, though I have no idea what air and fire could combine into."

Sakura grins. "Yeah; the first Hokage had two elements; that's why he had his famous mokuton!"

Sasuke punches him in the arm, garnering a yelp. "Don't get all mopey on us just because you've got a cool thing going for you." He murmurs, and Naruto smiles widely.  
Kakashi hums, pleased at the efficient derailment of what could have been a messy incident. He hopes Naruto's self worth issues will resolve themselves in time with the help of his team, but if that doesn't work, chuunin take mandatory psychiatric evaluations, and therapy will be good for two of them especially. He's sure Sakura and he can help them through satisfactory resolutions.

He calmly shoves the teasing, lingering thoughts of his own trauma down. He certainly doesn't need therapy. He's rather well adjusted for a war veteran and an ex-anbu.

Most 'ex-anbu' are dead anbu.

...

...

:Guest- Thank you so much! I have always wanted Kishimoto to kind of play on the enhanced senses we see Naruto display like, maybe _once_ when he should be on par with the Inuzuka in terms of scenting and animalistic traits due to the Kyuubey (there is more of that coming~). It makes me really happy you like my portrayals of the characters, especially Kakashi!  
DragonNOOB- This is definitely no way near the first fic of it's kind; I have seen so many amazing takes on Kakashi being a good teacher, the kids bonding and actually forming healthy attachments to each other instead of the obsessive ones of canon- I can't tell you enough how much the word 'organic' being used to describe their interactions means to me! I really try to write them the way I see them- or what they could have been.  
rantu1324- I personally do not have any inter-team ships for team seven; but I can confidently say if you would like to view it as SasuSakuNaru poly with a focus on emotional bonds rather than physical, it can _absolutely_ be viewed like that. Platonic or romantic, communication and affection is paramount to this story. There is a **lot** of team seven interacting and bonding in the next few chapters I promise.  
Myrddin Emrys The Third- first off, love the profile pic. Second, thank you for your kind words! I hope you continue to love this story as it progresses.:


	5. Chapter 5

:I gotta slow down posting these or ya'll will be pissed when it takes a full month to upload newly written chapters lmao:

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Sakura exhales calmly, hand snapping out and gouging the wood in a blunted arc. She scowls, pauses, turns to her scroll. She's vaguely aware of Naruto happily chattering about something from inside Sasuke's house- she'd volunteered to stay outside and make use of the wooden posts in his training ground while the boys go through his father's things. She feels that Naruto is more comforting in this situation, utterly distracting in his constant optimism.

Speaking of distractions.

She shakes her head harshly, still scowling, forces herself into the breathing exercises she's been drilling into her brain since Kakashi slipped her a set of medic nin scrolls. She wants to ask where he got them, as they're old, and faded ink at the top of them denotes them as the property of someone named 'Rin', but he seemed sad when she thanked him eagerly, almost like he was looking _through_ her at _someone else_ , so she doesn't press. When she's calmed herself down, let go of the frustration, she leans down to read the instructions on the scroll again. Chakra scalpels are instrumental if she ever wants to be proficient at surgery, and they're the staple of a very very deadly taijutsu style that few bother practising, or are even aware of. She'd completed the fish exercise recently, graduated to tentatively healing bruises and scrapes, and just yesterday she healed a long slice in Sasuke's shin and a dislocated thumb when he'd screwed up a wire trick. It hadn't even pulled on her reserves, but any excitement and pride she may have felt has been blunted by her, ironically, blunt scalpels.

The style's similar to the gentle fist, she thinks, only targeting organs and nerves instead of the chakra pathways, utilising knife hand motions instead of open palm strikes. The basic graceful twists and slaps to redirect the blows of an opponent are integral to both styles, however. Maybe she should ask Hinata for a spar- it might do her good. No chakra use, just familiarising herself with the smooth motions. She's got the stances down rather well, she thinks, and Kakashi is always giving her tips and pointers and she's lasting longer and longer without taking hits in each spar- her teammates especially are adapting to her new style, forcing her to hit harder, faster, move quicker and predict their movements, as they weave out of the way of what would be instantly fatal blows if she could only get these damn scalpels right.

She sighs, pushes the anger out in steady breaths. The exercises are for staying calm while tending the wounded, removing fear and hesitation in preparation for deployment on a battlefield, but they work very well for frustration also. Her mother's complaints that she never goes shopping with her or spends any time at home anymore flow off her like water off a ducks back, and simple irritation is nothing. She likes the feeling of control over herself, over her emotions. She ran into Ino recently, and didn't even feel the urge to insult her back when the blonde girl started making rude comments about her forehead. The look on her face when she didn't even acknowledge her was satisfying- but sad in a way. She misses Ino as her friend.

She squeezes her eyes shut, suddenly gripped by melancholy. Her stupid rivalry to win Sasuke's heart cost her the friendship that cemented her desire to be a ninja. Originally she and Ino were going to be the top kunoichi, become famous and strong and be best friends forever, and Sakura remembers the girl who wiped away her tears.

She lashes out, chakra buzzing down her arm, and then opens her eyes when the wood gives no resistance, watching in awe as she slowly slices her hand downwards, completing the strike. The post topples, cleanly and methodically cut in half, no rough edges. She lets the chakra fade, stares at her hands.

She's startled out of it by Naruto cheering from one of the top floor windows. "Awesome! Hey 'Suke, look- Sakura did it!" Sasuke sticks his head out, and warmth fills her as they both smile down at her, Naruto beaming with his thumbs up, hanging halfway out the window, and Sasuke with one hand on the other boy's back so he doesn't fall, smile small but proud.

She grins up at them, gives a wave as they go back inside.

She lets the chakra buzz down her arms again, and now that she knows what a successful scalpel feels like this time it's easy to focus it into the sharp point, extending out in the same direction as her fingers. She fiddles with different grips, makes multiple in one hand and positions them like knuckle dusters, has them extend out of her palm in the textbook standard palm strikes of the gentle fist, and finally settles on a fluid mixture along the lines of the scrolls. An open hand block or deflection has a palm scalpel, and a knife hand attack has pinpoint accurate blades extending from her knuckles down her fingers, encasing them like a glove. After being formed the green glow fades to invisibility, but the blade is still very much there. Devastating, and the enemy won't know til it's too late that her taijutsu isn't as simple as it seems.

It's made for precision hits, she knows, not tearing the enemy apart; the thought brings disgust and a visceral satisfaction all at once- but she's not that kind of person. She won't become it either.

She spends the next two hours before it's time to part ways and head home running through katas, this time with chakra scalpels extended.

She wonders at the defensive ability of the style; if she could perhaps make scalpels from any point on her body, any blow to her costing her opponent double.

...

Naruto warily peers out the window before closing the blinds, pausing in the middle of his apartment and extending his senses, scent and sound and sight with a pulse of chakra that feels like his but not his all at once. Too primal to be born from him ( _too old and knowing_ ) but still familiar. Once he's satisfied Kakashi isn't hiding somewhere ready to punish him for not going straight to sleep he goes into his bedroom, grabs the books he keeps under his bed and makes a clone, the both of them falling into the subject matter with a surprising veracity, for anyone that knows Naruto and his legendary hatred of studying. After about thirty minutes the clone goes and fetches parchment and ink, and the original moves to the floor and starts practising his brush strokes with the ease of a trained artist- a sign of how intently he's been studying this on his own- while the clone continues slowly reading.

He makes three storage scrolls and tests them, pleased when all three work as supposed to, and dispels his clone, packing up two hours after he started.

As he hops into bed he wonders if Sasuke is doing alright. There were some quiet moments when they were going through the dusty study in Sasuke's house, but he thinks he did a good job of distracting the other. And he got to see Sakura straight up demolish a wooden post. It was awesome.

His mind wanders sleepily, catching on thoughts of his team, ramen and the swirling consistency of ink on paper, soothing somehow. He imagines the sound of brush on parchment as he fades into dreams, thinks of someone in the apartment with Uzumaki-red hair writing out complex seals after having put him to bed- he imagines a warm breakfast waiting for him when he wakes up, someone to smooth back his hair and kiss his forehead like he's seen mothers do.

...

Sasuke, for once, has gone to bed early, not wanting to face the dusty scrolls sitting on the kitchen table downstairs just yet. Naruto made it easier, his clones did most of the actual work and he was too busy answering questions both related and not to their project to feel small and sad.

But now the house and the grounds are empty again, and the wind makes the walls and floorboards creak, his tired mind still jumping with hope that it's his mother come to peer in on him or his father passing by, heading to the master bedroom at the end of the hall. Sometimes he even wishes for his brother to come and smooth his hair back away from his eyes, smile and poke his forehead and ask him about his nightmares.

He hates himself for that. For wanting the monster to come and chase his sadness, when he's the one that caused it. And the betrayal still hurts and aches, still pulls tears to his eyes when he's alone, still makes him feel small and empty inside and out in the large house that's only got one occupant.

But it's better now. It's better because sometimes he wakes up to Naruto jumping on his bed to wake him, Sakura hovering by the door and scolding the blonde, too polite to come into the bedroom without an invitation and Kakashi perched on the windowsill languidly complaining about having to gather his wayward students like little baby birds running to and fro. And then he pushes Naruto off the bed and Naruto squawks and flails as he lands with a thump, wailing dramatically as Sakura laughs and Kakashi's gaze softens before they all go to get breakfast together.

And sometimes when his chest hurts and it's hard to breathe Naruto comes and just sits next to him as they watch Sakura spar with their sensei, and the ache lessens until he forgets all about it; and Naruto never brings it up outside of those moments.

And sometimes when he misses his mother or the chatter of his aunts when they'd wander around the compound to visit their friends Sakura falls down next to him with a dramatic huff, blowing hair out of her face and complaining about Ino picking on her new, more reasonable clothing. The most basic and ordinary things, and he smiles and says the green suits her eyes and is far more appropriate than the dress, and she rolls her eyes and says she knows, and they agree that Ino needs to get serious about her career as a ninja; and she makes him promise to go weapons shopping with her and Naruto after lunch, and to help her pick out a good sized medical pouch for bandages and soldier pills and even some poison antidotes. She'll mention the books he gave her on plants and poisons then, thank him before mentioning some wonderfully ludicrous fact about a certain flower that has Naruto snorting in amusement and getting a whack from Kakashi for being distracted mid-fight, which leaves all of them laughing as the blonde rolls around on the grass complaining piteously, unable to smother the grin on his face if his life depended on it.

And when he thinks about his team he doesn't need Itachi, doesn't miss the monster in the slightest when he can have Naruto pulling faces behind the backs of the chuunin at the mission desk when they aren't looking, Sakura talking about the best way to kill a man while he's sleeping then turning around and proclaiming a deep desire for dango or onigiri, Kakashi taking them to lunch which they all pay for with the money they've made from D ranks that morning; talking about how impressed he is with their progress and always promising more to learn, never inflating their egos and never letting them down when it comes time to teach them something new.

Sasuke falls asleep smiling.

...

The next day Naruto turns up with a plain paper bag in his hand, looking both excited and extremely nervous as they wait the customary ten minutes for Kakashi to show up. Sasuke frowns curiously at him, and Sakura resigns herself to not knowing until it's too late and there's paint everywhere.

Kakashi walks in with takeout in his hands, from the place down the street that only serves healthy food (Naruto still whines about ramen when they pass Ichiraku's to go there) and waves cheerfully as he motions for them all to sit on the grass, completely ignoring Naruto's obviously frazzled state.

"Sasuke, when did you really start teaching Naruto the Uchiha style?"

"I told you. The night we passed your test."

"Truly? Remarkable. I'd say impossible, but-"

"He's Naruto."

"Exactly. You become accustomed to his remarkable ability to grasp physical lessons quicker than most."

He's started talking about the weather as they eat before Naruto finally snaps, and Sakura hides her grin with her hand as he throws his half eaten sandwich back into the bag, lunging to his feet and waving the unmarked package around. "Okay okay yes I know I need to learn patience BUT-" he bounces on the balls of his feet before the nerves come back in and he hesitates, shifting.

"W-well; you see I finally finished the book on Uzushio and it says that some genin teams who wanted to stay in the same cell as chuunin and even jounin get commemorative jewellery, and sometimes even the jounin sensei would get it if he was really proud of his team or if they were all super close..." He says it quickly, eyes darting around at their faces as he opens the bag and all three of them lean forward, Kakashi's brow rising as he sees the matching earrings nestled in Naruto's hand.

"They're gorgeous!" Sakura mumbles, stunned.

Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly, grins and sits back down. "I've been saving up from the D ranks and this jewellery shop manager has always been alright to me and they were even on sale and I just..."

He hands them out in pairs, a silver moon and golden sun each, and Sasuke even offers a rare grin when he accepts his. "And Sasuke has his senbon and we all know they're basically as sterile as the old farts on the council-"

Sakura chokes on a laugh.

"- so I figure we can just pierce each other's ears like they did in Uzu." He mumbles, fiddling with his dark blue shorts again, picking at the bandages he's started to wear religiously on his legs.

"I'm in, dobe." Sasuke murmurs, already getting out several senbon. "We can use a different one for each ear so there's no chance of infection, and Sakura has all sorts of ointments and stuff to make sure it heals right." He holds the senbon out to the blonde and moves his hair away from his earlobe without any further preamble.

Naruto just about has tears in his eyes, grinning as he carefully stabs through the soft flesh, Sasuke not even wincing at the sting, pushing the thin needle all the way through and gently hooking the earring in before grabbing a new senbon and moving to the other side.

By the end of it, all four of them have newly pierced ears, Sakura tying her hair back to proudly show off the lovely jewellery and Kakashi fiddling with one of his curiously, rolling it between his fingers despite the slight sting. Sasuke just smiles, and Naruto beams like a miniature supernova as he finishes his food, the golden sun catching the light every so often and the silver crescent moon far more subtle in his left ear.

"I really like them, Naruto. They're simple but beautifully made. Thank you." Sakura says, earnest and genuine and Naruto starts crying around his mouthful of bread.

Even Kakashi is roped into the hug that ensues.

For a while they just sit and talk about everything and nothing, admiring each other's new jewellery and their own. Sakura talks about her improvements with chakra scalpels, and Sasuke talks about having mastered the lightning bullet jutsu to the point he can go straight through a tree trunk with it. Naruto talks about the earrings- a sign of skill because they're an obvious weakness, if any enemy could get a hand on them they could rip them right out of the earlobe but his team is so strong that will never happen. He mentions offhand that he's growing his hair out too, and Sasuke seems to latch on that as another sign of their skill.

"I want people to be wary of us. I want them to hesitate- too obviously dangerous and everyone will go for us, but the right amount of threat will get us the right attention." He says, and Sakura smiles, touches her own hair almost absently, wonders what they'll all look like with long braids or ponytails.

Kakashi respectfully declines, because his hair is untameable and sticks straight up; any longer and he'll scrape ceilings.

That image rouses a laugh from all of them, and Kakashi throws a hand over his forehead, wailing. "My cute students have no respect for meeeee!"

...

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:OK, there's another chapter! I'm sorry they're all a bit shorter than the first two.:


	6. Chapter 6

:Hello my dudes we are approaching newly written territory, are you excited, I am excited:

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"Naruto, I think you should stop cutting your nails." Sakura hums, looking over at him as he hangs from the tree branch they're all sitting on, upside down and busy using a kunai to turn said nails into blunt stubs. He pauses, squints up at her.

"How come?"

"Well, my taijutsu relies on subterfuge for the first few strikes, right? And the Uchiha use a lot of open palm strikes, so I think you should let your claws grow, use them as a hidden advantage."

He goes to protest, and Sasuke leans over to interject.

"We know you think they're too close to your prisoner and it scares you a bit, but it's a useful tool. It's hard, but you have to accept that it's a responsibility but also a useful weapon. You should take advantage of that. Your canines are great for intimidation- think of Kiba. He has long, pointed nails too, though yours are definitely sharper and longer than his. And if people don't notice you'll do some serious flesh damage with your strikes. It's a good idea." He nods to Sakura, and she smiles, pleased at his agreement before looking back at a frowning Naruto. He hums, swings slightly before putting away the kunai.

"Those are good points. Maybe I can bug Kiba for a spar and see how the Inuzuka make use of their claws." He shoots Sakura a smile, and she relaxes, glad there are no hard feelings.

"Oh, wanna see something cool?" He chirps, pulling himself back up to sit on the branch between them, holding his hands out.

"They're all blunt now, but I've figured out how to push some of... you know, the other chakra to where I want it to work the most and it's awesome." He sticks his tongue out in concentration and the other two genin watch in interest as his nails elongate rapidly, forming deadly points and darkening as they toughen.

"Fascinating. I bet they won't break on anything unless they're purposefully cut away." Sakura murmurs. Naruto nods brightly.

When they've finished he grins at them both, getting smiles in return.

"I can regrow a finger too now!" He blinks as two sets of eyes stare at him, baleful and horrified.

"Why on earth did you need to?!"

...

Kakashi arrives to Sakura yanking Naruto around by the ear, the boy wailing about the risk of his earring falling out while Sasuke berates him for something involving testing his ability to heal. They stop when they see their sensei staring up at the three of them perched on their branch, obviously amused. "If you baby birds are done squealing at each other, I was wondering if you'd like to get your first C rank! The Hokage has a nice run of the mill slave trafficking, village raiding bandit encampment for us to go remove." He sets his hands on his hips, jovially, and all three genin are down on the ground and clustered around him in seconds, staring up with shiny eyes.

"A C rank!" Naruto whispers, visibly thrilled, Sakura nodding along. Sasuke restrains his own glee, turning his head and looking up at Kakashi with one eye, much like a bird. "We're ready." He mumbles, but his gaze betrays his excitement.

Kakashi takes them all the way up to the Hokage tower to be personally given the mission, because he wants to savour the excitement in their eyes while it's still there- he knows it won't last long.  
They pack for three days and he takes a cursory check of the contents of each pack, intrigued when Naruto's is mostly sealing scrolls. He'll have to prod the blonde into giving him some answers, and see if he wants to learn more about the art; Jiraiya owes him several favours after all, and Kakashi was taught by the Yondaime. You can't spend time with Minato and Kushina and _not_ pick up a few things. Satisfied, he praises them briefly before allowing Sasuke to take the lead, observing the formation the boy decides on and the easy agreement his teammates give him.

He's still impressed halfway through the second day, where Sasuke successfully kills four bandits with only kunai and no raising of the alarm, allowing Sakura to sneak in on one side and Naruto's 'distraction' to burn up the other.

Wind and fire certainly is a dangerous combination, he thinks, eyeing the blazing inferno his loudest student has created. He takes a moment to watch Sakura scything through unprepared men fumbling under a perfectly laid genjutsu, her face a clinical mask of calm- turns to Sasuke, who has an impressive body count in a perfect circle at distance around him, kunai and shuriken hitting throats and slicing into eyeballs, senbon noiselessly eliminating enemies with pinpoint accuracy; nobody getting within five feet. It's Naruto that gets to him the most, though, because there's blood in his blonde hair. Sasuke and Sakura are clean killers, but Naruto has no such luck, his style carving and messy. Sasuke would be bloody too, if reduced to taijutsu and using his kunai close up, but Naruto fires off the grand fireball Sasuke taught him and immediately enhances it with a signless blast of wind, and people scream as they die, because he's a heavy hitter, not an instant death assassin like his teammates. He lashes out with his claws and Kakashi approves because it's a very effective use of his physical attributes, but the blood splatter only increases as Naruto breaks a man's neck with a solid kick to the throat, crimson coughed directly into his chest.

He only has to step in twice, once when Sakura freezes as she enters a tent to find a surviving bandit with a kunai to the throat of a terrified woman, another when Naruto gets caught off guard by three bandits rushing him at once. No one is injured, except of course the ones who dared try to hurt his kids.  
In the end Kakashi teaches them cleanup protocol, bloodsplattered clones carrying bodies to lie next to each other as Sasuke catalogues items and the numbers of the dead, in order to create an accurate mission report. He watches Naruto rifle through pockets with an easy gaze, calculating and entirely foreign on his features, and thinks this is certainly not his first time looting bodies. (Waste not, want not.)

They escort several women and a few men (and children, Kakashi tries not to think about the little girls who cling to the woman and to Sakura in fear) back to the nearby town they'd been kidnapped from with little trouble, his students politely accepting their gratitude and refusing all offers of rewards other than their mission pay, as that's against regulation- as Sakura put it so very well.

It's the return that's hard. It always is. When the adrenaline fades out and the mission is no longer a priority. He finds Sasuke staring into the fire, shaking and pale and after talking him through it 'No, you're not your brother. I promise' and putting him to bed in the tent they've set up he walks down to the small stream nearby only to find Sakura washing her hands. He watches her dry them, pause, wash them again. And oh, that aches, hits something very close to home.

"There was no blood, sensei, but I made hearts explode. All the blood is on the inside, but I'm still dirty, sensei. They didn't even know I was there til it was too late. It wasn't fair. But they were bad, bad men, right?"

Kakashi kneels, Sakura and Rin overlapping in his mind; but instead of calling her a crybaby like his younger self did so long ago he folds her into his arms- she's still so very small.

"You're not dirty Sakura. You're a kunoichi. You've done your village proud, your sensei proud, and your teammates proud. I think you should go talk to Sasuke for a while. He's in the tent. Do you need some water?"

"Sakura, your mother won't hate you, they _were_ very _very_ bad people."

"It's okay to cry."

Naruto is vomiting into a bush a good five minute walk from camp when he finds him, sobbing and retching. He kneels, rubs the boy's back til there's nothing left to expel and holds him as he cries.

"I'm not a demon. I did the right thing. They didn't have a reason behind their cruelty. They enjoyed hurting people. Right sensei?" He whispers when the tears are gone, and Kakashi murmurs his agreement, and any praise he had come bearing is lost in the mutual sadness; a loss of innocence far more damaging than any of the genin expected- but exactly what Kakashi had predicted.

...

"Most jounin sensei start you off with rabbits. Take you hunting occasionally, for larger game before taking a mission that involves killing. But I never liked that. It hurts more to kill something innocent." Sakura nods thoughtfully, moves a bit closer as she mulls over his words, and Kakashi bites his tongue, choosing not to mention the loss of formation. All three children stay very close, tucked together and against him even as they walk. They could take the trees, sure, but it's easier to talk like this, to take care of them and let them calm down before they get home, even if it makes them late.

Naruto lets out a shaky sigh and Sakura squeezes his hand, Sasuke tugging on the blonde's sleeve reassuringly.

"How old were you when you first killed someone?" Sasuke asks, quietly.

"I was six."

"I'm sorry." Sakura whispers, and Kakashi smiles down at them.

"So am I." He stops, kneels in front of them to look them in the eyes.

"You are all good kids. But you're also good ninja. And sometimes that comes before being a good person. It doesn't change that you are, though. Do you understand? You will kill again. But it gets easier. It'll never be fun, like a spar is, like a practice fight or learning something new. But it's very very necessary. And sometimes you can pretend it's fun, and that makes it easier too." He pauses, looks at them all for a long moment.

"Sometime it's satisfying. That's okay. That's healthy."

He lets them fall into his arms as they nod, relieved. He quietly thanks Minato in his head, so glad he remembers the things the yondaime had said to help him through it. He ends up carrying all three of the genin through the trees, Sakura on his back and Naruto and Sasuke perched in either arm, all of their packs put away in sealing scrolls Naruto brought 'just in case' and tucked in pouches as they whoop with glee, still not quite able to reach the speed that the jounin can.

The chuunin at the gate wave them in and grin as Naruto brags about taking down all the bandits, Sakura squawking indignantly at his outrageous fabrication of events. It lifts a pressure in Kakashi's chest as Sasuke demands Naruto accept his higher kill count- that they've found pride in it instead of disgust.

It is, perhaps, not healthy for children to be proud of killing; but it's very necessary in the life of a ninja.

Hiruzen watches the team as they enter to give their mission report, eyes taking in the calmness, the closeness, and the tired gaze of children and sensei both. He's glad there's no breakdowns to field, (if the civilian girl had gone back to her parents in tears, it would have caused some issues) and relieved Kakashi could coax them through their first kill without any incidents. He notes the polite address Naruto refers to him by, momentarily stunned, and he only becomes more so as they report like professional chuunin, concise and clear and not too long. Kakashi summarises it and the Hokage notices Naruto's hands, the nails he'd never grown out beforehand. Acceptance, maybe?

Whatever it is, he's thankful. Thankful they passed, thankful Kakashi is teaching them well. A C rank completed flawlessly after only one month and two weeks as a genin unit? Very impressive. He signs off on their pay and wishes them well as they leave his office, eyes straying to the stone face of his successor watching over the village.

Maybe Minato won't be too angry with him after all.

He starts planning their promotions in his head; thinking about the potential strength they will have reached by the time the chuunin exam rolls around.

...

Naruto stares into the mirror, exhales and watches the cool surface fog and then dissipate. He taps his nails against the porcelain sink, shivers as the sound echoes through the tiny bathroom. He retches, form hunching violently and losing sight of his reflection as he spits bile into the drain, coughing slightly after he's sure he's expelled it all. He needs to eat something, thinks of the wrapped meals Sakura made for him the other day sitting in the fridge- it should have been embarrassing, admitting his poverty to his team, but instead they seemed to take it in stride, offering him meals and letting him save his mission pay instead of having to spend it on overpriced groceries.  
He pulls away from the sink, takes a deep breath and looks up again, noting his pale face and red rimmed eyes. As he watches they change, skin darkening out to a healthy shade and eyes losing the itchiness of a lack of sleep and too much crying.

"I did the right thing. I did the right thing, I completed the mission. I saved civilians."  
It feels like an empty platitude but he lets it fill him anyway, lets it make him bouyant and energetic. He needs to get to his team anyway, need to shower and change.  
The water runs cold when he twists the hot tap and he rolls his eyes, mundane worries anchoring him to the now, and he strips, dropping his clothes in the hamper next to the toilet- (Sakura scolded him for twenty minutes the first time she visited his apartment, and then she taught him how to clean between the bathroom tiles and put his dirty clothes away) and stepping under the freezing spray. A little yelp escapes him and he hunches, grabbing at the soap on the sink and starting to scrub, wrinkling his nose at the 'scent erasing' formula- it feels like rubbing sandpaper on his skin, but it leaves no redness and it's better than having the Inuzuka hold their noses around him.  
Kiba told him when he entered the academy that the scentless soap was regulation so that the tracking squads could have an easier time sniffing out enemies between Konoha scents. And that Naruto smelled very strongly of bloody fur. He'd asked him once if he went hunting a lot.  
Naruto snuck a bar out of the Shinobi supply shop on the corner near the academy buildings the very next day, though at the time he didn't know why, exactly, he smelled like that.

"You know, I don't know if I hate you or not. You've never talked to me, or tried anything, and you can't blame the fox for hunting the rabbit, because it needs to eat. But you took my parents from me, and the Yondaime from the village, and everyone hates _me_ because _you_ live inside me. But if it's just in your nature to kill, and Konoha was simply a step on your way across the nations, then really, what's the point of hating you, huh? You didn't do it out of spite. You simply did it because you're built to."  
"In the same vein, I guess Shinobi are just built to complete their mission, so there's no point lingering, huh?... Good talk, furball."  
He squeezes his eyes shut as he rubs more soap through his hair, then tugs his fingers through it under the shower head with a whine at the temperature.

"Fucking landlord... I wish he'd fix the damn pipes..."  
He stumbles out and rapidly scrubs the nearest towel over his skin to stop the goosebumps, dripping water over the tiles as he opens the door and heads into his bedroom to get dressed- and promptly tears one of his dresser drawers out in shock as an imposing sensation runs through his limbs.

 **"Little fool that you are, forgiving those who wrong you so easily... Pathetic. You are undeserving of my power, just like those before you."**

Naruto drops the drawer on his toe and grunts in pain as he hops around, clutching his foot before falling backwards onto his bed.  
There's no way that happened. Right?

"Hello? Furball?"

Nothing. It was his imagination. Surely. The Kyuubi is sealed inside him, there's no way it can communicate with him. It would have before now, if it could have.

He picks the drawer up and grabs his training clothes out of it, mind spinning in circles as he wonders if he should tell Kakashi, or simply forget the whole thing.  
He pauses midway through pulling his shirt over his head, staring at the dark fabric.  
Yeah, ignorance is bliss. He yanks his shoes on and shoves a peach in his mouth, hurriedly locking his front door behind him as he rushes out of the complex and towards the training grounds.

...

...

...

:Feat- never before seen Naruto exposition because he's a dumbass but he's also my son and I love him.  
On with review responses!  
Guest: Well, I can't say the discovery arc is SOON but I can say that Team Seven are conniving little shits who don't like being left out of the loop, and perhaps Kakashi isn't guarding things as closely as he should... for the sake of having his team be prepared when things inevitably hit the fan, of course. Who knows what they'll do when they find out about the Uchiha Massacre's true instigators?  
Man285: We have some other teams and sensei interactions coming up really soon actually, so keep an eye out for that!  
Toriwithwolves: If you like trauma being addressed and team seven being a family, you are gonna love the oncoming plot, I assure you. Kakashi being the caretaker of this ragtag mess, especially Naruto and Sasuke who need guidance more than anyone, is basically my favourite thing, so there's no way I'm not including it. I'm so glad you love it, and I hope your love only grows as it continues to be updated!: 


	7. Chapter 7

:Don't we love child trauma? I sure do:

...

...

Another six C ranks later team seven have become somewhat famous in the social circles of civilians and ninja alike, and gossip follows them relentlessly.

"I've heard that the nice civilian born girl can slice clean through a tree with just a touch!"  
"Have you seen _that boy_? He's gotten even faster than before... how will the anbu ever catch him now?" "Well; he hasn't been pranking anyone recently has he? He's probably plotting something..."  
"Sasuke-kun is still proving his genius! I've heard he's even unlocked his sharingan already. Amazing!"  
"Ne, Kakashi-san calls them his 'baby birds'. I've never even seen him take a genin team, let alone be this proud of them..."

Naruto rolls his eyes, sick of the inane babble, especially the claims of sharingan that aren't true (where did those rumours even come from?) and jumps to the rooftops, (he absently reminds himself to paint a giant dick on the grocery store windows to get back at the old bint who spat at him the other day) running down to the Uchiha compound so he doesn't have to waste time making his way through the crowded market streets; and to avoid the annoyance of the glares that would inevitably follow him. The heavenly aroma of good takeout wafts through the air and he grins at finally being allowed to indulge in his beloved ramen- it's been almost three months since he's had it. He jumps the gate, landing with a pulse of chakra to absorb the impact before using shunshin to reach the nearest house (because he can) and whistling loudly. "Hey, hands full, a little help?!" He calls, grins when he hears Sakura yell a 'coming!' back to him, and waits. The door opens and she takes a few of the bags with a welcoming smile, playfully reaching back and flicking the small ponytail he's been wearing lately, blonde strands finally long enough to pull back. He pouts at her and she rolls her eyes even as they both put the bags down on the kitchen table, the door swinging shut behind them.

"Do I smell foooood?~" Kakashi sing-songs, peering around the frame of the door with his hitai-ate around his neck and his scarred eye closed. They all know it holds a sharingan now, but they don't question his desire not to show it. They also don't question his doggie pajamas, cartoon paw prints and puppies all over the flannel shirt and pants- and it even has one of his masks attached.

They all desperately _want_ to ask. But they don't.

"Have you been bumming on Sasuke's couch again hobo-sensei?" Naruto asks, hands on his hips, and Kakashi blissfully ignores him in favour of the food on the table. "Hey, don't pretend you didn't hear me!" The blonde stomps his foot, only to be distracted by Sakura waving chopsticks in his face.

"It's not like you don't sleep over here all the time too. Not just at Sasuke's either, my mum has kicked you out twice now." She laughs, and he scowls, pulling up a chair and busying himself with his ramen, grumbling all the while.

Sasuke appears at the top of the stairs, miraculously summoned by the smell of food, eyes bloodshot and hair looking lank and uncared for where it drapes over his shoulders. All three of his guests glare at him.

"Did you stay up reading again? Honestly, Sasuke, losing sleep isn't going to make you more proficient in village politics. We aren't even chuunin yet, take a breather." Sakura points warningly at him, and he nods begrudgingly as he joins them for lunch. Kakashi mumbles something about going back to enforcing bed times and they all shudder slightly.

"I've been good!" Naruto protests, eyes wide with horror. "Don't set Pakkun on me again! He's so tiny but he has so much pee!" He looks close to traumatised tears even as he shoves more ramen in his mouth. Sakura and Sasuke shake their heads, commiserating with their teammate even as Kakashi cackles delightedly. "You're evil, sensei." Sakura mumbles; taking a bite of one of the dumplings Naruto had brought with him, and Sasuke nods emphatically as he reaches to serve himself.

"It's tough love, my cute little students! And it worked, didn't it?" He cackles when they all exchange glances, unable to refute him.

...

It's really an accident, she swears. _Everyone_ has been on edge since Kurenai's team returned from the C rank gone wrong, and _everyone_ knows anbu had to be sent to clean everything up and complete the mission. Kiba and Hinata stood up to a jounin level missing nin, Kurenai was poisoned, and they're all in the hospital, recovering. It's a miracle they all survived, and Shino is even more distant and quiet than usual, spending most of his time visiting his team. So when she turns from the shuriken display in the window after registering Naruto talking to someone and sees him bracing for impact as a fist moves to whack him upside the head she intervenes on autopilot, vaguely aware of Sasuke across the street moving to join them, kunai already in hand at the sight.

And she's been on several missions where a single blow could mean death, especially one angled towards the temple like this, so the scalpel extends from her forearm, panic and determination making it thicker than usual as she slides in front of her teammate in a picture perfect block; and the fist impales itself on it just as the green glow fades.

Then there's screaming, and she's startled so she falls into a heavier stance, ready to fight her way out and take her teammates with her and she doesn't care who she has to kill to protect them and get to Kakashi on the other side, what mission are they on- Sasuke's voice registers in her ears and she notes that he's put his weapons away; and the battle haze fades because the team leader considers there to be no threat.

White-blonde hair fills her vision, terrified pale blue eyes.

"Oh god, oh god Ino I'm so sorry-" she reaches out to the sobbing girl, hands glowing green as she starts resetting the splintered bone and sealing the flesh. Ino just stares at her, still crying with blood everywhere and Choji and Shikamaru look torn between offering aid to their teammate, attacking the other team or grabbing her and simply running. The crowd around them is a mess of murmuring, horrified gasps and angry muttering and Sakura can't believe she hurt her friend. Sasuke pulls her away, and she's shaking even as she buries her face in her hands, Naruto quietly apologising to team ten even as he explains they'd been on a difficult mission the other day, and that they're all tense, and she shoves her face into Sasuke's chest and tries not to hyperventilate too badly.

"We have become very protective of each other. And I know you were just playing around because I was being annoying, but Sakura didn't notice that, she only saw the strike. I'm very sorry. If you need to I'm sure your sensei can talk to ours and explain it better than I can. Sakura is an amazing medic so I'm sure Ino will have no lasting damage but maybe she should be taken to the hospital just in case."

"When did you start sounding so smart, Naruto?" Shikimaru remarks lazily but there's a cutting edge to it, and Sakura can just imagine the hurt in Naruto's gaze, the flinch he'd try to suppress, because even though he has his team he still wants the acceptance of all his peers. She pulls herself together and turns, Sasuke staying very close behind her. "Don't talk to my teammate like that." She says, and her voice is firm. She may regret what happened but she is in the right. Everyone knows that to startle a ninja or lash out at one (who isn't a teammate, isn't bound to you by that trust) can end badly for you, and she's apologised and even healed Ino who should have known not to attack a fellow shinobi, and she refuses to let her Naruto or her Sasuke take any flack for it.

Shikimaru moves to retort but Choji shakes his head, and they take a trembling Ino away, leading her down the street.

Sakura slumps almost immediately, and she's vaguely aware of Naruto pulling her down a side street and sitting her on a curb, Sasuke standing at the entrance, keeping watch out of the corner of her eye. She breathes. He's telling her to breathe, so she breathes. Naruto's comments and shouted insight has never steered her wrong in sparring or in battle.

All her confidence rushes out of her in one breath.

"I attacked a fellow Konoha ninja. In a civilian area. Will I be removed from the forces for this? Could- could I be executed-"

"No, Sakura. She assaulted me and you acted in defence. There's even a paragraph on it in that book you made me read, remember? 'A shinobi who is startled by what the offender sees as a playful movement or simply a friendly shove is entitled to their instinctual and defensive reaction, up to and often including the injury of the attacker.'" He uses a silly accent as he recites the quote and it makes her smile. She focuses on the sharp teeth in his familiar grin and nods slowly, the panic receding.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. You're right. I'll just have to apologise to Ino next time I see her. I'm sure her sensei will explain it." She smiles, feeling better. "I really really want something to eat. Can we go get some sweets?" Sasuke moves over and they watch her as she stands, brushes herself off. He even remembered to grab the shopping bags when Naruto pulled her away.

"Thank you." She says, and she means it with all her heart, but they just smile at her as they exit the alley, and they don't comment on her shaking hands, the smeared blood on her skin.

They end up stopping at three different stands to grab snacks to eat as they continue their shopping- she's moved away from the scene of the crime so to speak, so no one is giving her funny looks and Naruto keeps pointing out interesting weapons on display or body armour that looks ridiculous, and they all laugh together when they see it. Sasuke buys a pair of gloves with metal backs for her, and Naruto buys Sasuke a light blue hair tie, before shrugging and buying another two for himself and Sakura. They all tie their hair back with matching smiles and if it shows off the earrings, good, because this is her team and everyone should know it. (Where would she be without them? Useless Sakura who can't even throw a shuriken hard enough to pierce skin, insipid and vapid-) They all pool their money for some nice new kunai to share between them (because they're always getting blunted or broken beyond repair) and Naruto manages to snag some orange goggles with his very effective puppy dog eyes that he hangs around his neck with a grin. "I'm thinking of making smoke and decoy tags along with exploding tags, and I'll need stuff to protect my eyes. My old ones are too small, and they're just plastic. These are proper metal and shatter proof glass shinobi eyewear!"

"Admit it, they were orange and you had to have them. The practical use was just a bonus."

"Shut up Sasuke."

Sakura laughs.

...

They end up at a simple shinobi clothing store, browsing the racks. Naruto snags a dark red overshirt than can be reversed to show the gray underside, and some dark green pants that end just below the knee, full of hidden pockets. He finds a belt with weapon pouches and an orange buckle soon after and nearly deafens Sakura with his excited shout.

Naruto moves away to try them on and buy some extras, and Sasuke is a few sections over, so she lets herself look at the dresses and tunics. Because she doesn't have to be pretty for anyone but herself anymore, and she wants something functional that makes her feel good too. She snatches dark purple arm guards off the shelf nearby with a grin, testing the Kevlar-esque material and adding them to the small basket she'd grabbed when they entered. Matching knee guards go in too when she spots them, and she's her mother's daughter when it comes to a eye for clothes. So when she sees the deep mauve tunic with the dusky pink lining made of sturdy fabric with wire mesh underlay, she needs it. She has grey shorts at home that will go perfectly with it, and the grey and red sashes she affixes her weapons pouches to as makeshift belts.

Sasuke nearly makes her yell as he appears by her shoulder with a pair of dark brown shorts and what looks like a wristband. Maybe he's having Naruto put seals on it. He gives her an amused look and she glares, grabbing his find and tossing them in the basket. Naruto pops up halfway to the counter and easily dodges the reflexive punch Sasuke throws, unconcerned even though his teammates are near heart attacks as he dumps his pile in the basket too. Sakura supposes turn about is fair play- at least Sasuke got his comeuppance for startling her.

"What, the prestigious no-longer-duckbutt-headed Uchiha is buying something... that isn't dark enough to be emo?! A miracle!" Naruto gasps as he spots the brown shorts, putting a hand over his heart. Sakura suppresses a snort as Sasuke cuffs him around the head- tries to, Naruto darting around and laughing as he avoids the (admittedly half hearted) strikes.

..

Naruto bursts into the training ground a few days later with a wail and Sakura nearly takes a punch to the throat in her shock, Kakashi fumbling to a stop just in time. Sasuke is laughing at her wide eyed reaction to the near miss even as they whirl to ask Naruto what's wrong, and he points to his shirt before she or Kakashi even start forming words.

"My shirt! I accidentally put it in with the bandages and bleached it!" He cries piteously at the now yellow cloth.

Sakura sighs, heartbeat starting to slow back down to normal speeds. "It matches your hair, your goggles and belt are still orange, and the red looks better over it anyway."

He pauses mid wail with a startled expression, looks down at himself. "Really?"

They all know it's because Sasuke gave him the shirt, not that he cares about the colour.

Said Uchiha is on the ground with tears in his eyes and Sakura steps on his toes as she storms over, eliciting a satisfying yelp. She grabs Naruto by the ear as customary and he starts yelling about his earring instead of the shirt.

"Naruto! You look perfectly fine! We all look perfectly fine! The next time you startle me in the middle of a spar I'm burning everything you own that's orange!" She scolds, releasing him when he apologises, genuinely remorseful. She sighs, sets her hands on her hips. "Anyway. Sasuke and I want you to put some seals on our clothes for the chuunin exams." She sits down and pulls off her elbow and knee guards, holds them out. "Some durability and storage seals would be great, thanks." She smiles when Naruto drops into a seated position, all drama forgotten in the eagerness of getting to use his skills in fuuinjutsu. Sasuke adds his wristwarmer to the pile. "Same for me too." He murmurs before wandering over to spar with Kakashi, who's too used to the daily antics of his team to care in the slightest about what shenanigans just occurred; having, in fact, pulled out his latest Icha Icha copy.

For a while Sakura just sits and watches Naruto make perfect curved symbols on the items, his intensity and skill making her smile. She's just as passionate about her iryoujutsu and Sasuke about his bukijutsu.

Naruto nearly ruins a seal when a chakra signature flares into existence near the ongoing threeway spar his team are having; and he's on his feet and cussing before he really registers who just arrived.

"The hell do you think you're doing?! Do you know what happens if you fuck up the third line in a dual durability and storage seal when it has an overlaying ward seal?! I could have lost a hand! You could have lost a hand! We could all have been vaporised! Sasuke's luscious hair could fall out! What's wrong with you, startling someone doing seal work?! Are you an idiot?!" He's up with his finger pressed accusingly against the offending person's chest before he actually notices the jounin vest, belatedly adding a grumbled-

"Are you an idiot... _jounin-san_?"

His only answer is a confused sputtering noise and Naruto throws his hands up in disbelief, stalking back to his sealing. "Interrupts an unfinished seal, no respect to the sealer; had to keep a line of chakra the whole time so it didn't collapse on itself because I had to leave it /incomplete/-"

Kakashi eyes his angry student with mixed amusement and trepidation as Asuma turns to him, expression incredulous. He motions a thumb at the boy now once again immersed in sealing.

"Is he for real, Kakashi?" He asks, but Kakashi just motions for Sasuke and Sakura to continue the spar without him as he moves over to the other jounin sensei.

"What's this about, Asuma?" He murmurs, and the shorter man sighs. "It's about Ino. Her mother is trying to press charges. You know she's civilian. Clan raised, but still a civilian, especially when it comes to her precious baby girl. Inoichi is trying to persuade her otherwise but it's getting messy." Kakashi tsks in response. "My student was quite traumatised by the whole event. I'd rather it pass without making waves. All the laws state it as a simple accident, completely understandable. I heard Ino even apologised at one point?"

"I regret not drilling them on the basic laws earlier, but yes she was very upset when she realised it was technically her that instigated the unpleasant encounter. She, Shikimaru and Choji are all still wary of your team now, but I don't blame them. It's a shame she had to learn the lesson so painfully, but that's on me." He shrugs. "Of course, Shikimaru knew and he should have told his teammates. Could have stopped her. He's been thoroughly drilled on the importance of sharing knowledge within teams now, obviously. He's still running laps." His expression shifts to one of amusement.

"Of course... I didn't know you were making new Sannin here or I would have prepared my team a bit more."

Kakashi huffs out a laugh and pulls out his book, sensing the sudden lack of seriousness. "Maa, they're simply remarkably driven students! How could I deny them the opportunity to learn, hmm?"

Asuma shakes his head disbelievingly.

"Either way, figured I'd warn you in case we can't derail the oncoming hysteria of a civilian parent. I assume Sakura's mother hasn't been informed?"

"Sakura requested I act as her formal guardian for all shinobi matters. There's little sense in distressing her family for no reason."

Asuma inclines his head and vanishes in a whirl of leaves, and Kakashi settles down to observe his genin with a careful eye.

...

...

:Shorter but important chapter! Thank you for all the lovely reviews and holy shit the faves and follows? I would die for you all. Remember I edit myself so any forwards slashes I missed are supposed to be italicised comments!:


	8. Chapter 8

:Hey, so radio silence for so long was because my phone FINALLY decided to have it's last hurrah and it has taken me AGES to salvage the three chapters and all my notes that I hadn't posted, but here it is at last! This will mark the beginnings of the Chuunin arc. Warnings for talk and description of periods in relation to shinobi lifestyle, vomiting and panic attacks!:

...

Sakura recognised the jounin, of course, as team ten's Asuma-sensei, but Kakashi never approached her over it so she let herself relax again. She trusts her sensei, despite his not so latent insanity, and if he doesn't feel the need to talk to her about it, then everything is fine. She doesn't have to worry about it anymore- but she has a feeling she'll _always_ fret over the nervousness in Ino's eyes when the other girl approached her to apologise. It very nearly ended in tears on both sides; but even though by the end of it Ino was asking about Sasuke as usual- when she moves too quickly the other girl flinches.

"Did Sasuke get you those earrings?!" Ino yelps as she spots them, eyes half trained on Sakura's hands, wary, but Sakura just laughs. "Naruto did. We all have matching ones, even Kakashi sensei." Ino sniffs and says that the sudden friendship between them all is weird, but she'll still win Sasuke in the end- honestly, she tunes her out, not that she means to. Sakura shrugs, smiles, and Ino leaves with a frustrated pout and an insult about her forehead, but it's better than leaving in tears.  
She spots Hinata out of the corner of her eye, buying fruit at a stand; so she wanders over with a smile, glad to see that her classmate is out of the hospital.  
Hinata flinches when she taps her on the shoulder and Sakura frowns slightly; because she's used to the confidence her team has. Even team ten has it, the quiet self assuredness that comes from knowing you can and will fight to the death instead of laying down and accepting it, but Hinata... Hinata seems afraid. And Sakura has certainly never had a violent altercation with her

She admittedly never really paid attention to the Hyuuga heiress in the academy, and now she wishes she had; because the girl is timid and shy, yes, but one look will tell any trained eyes that she doesn't believe in herself. That she won't protect herself.

"S-sorry, Sakura-san!" She stutters, face turning red right up to the tips of her ears. "I-I h-haven't- I d-didn't notice you. M-my apologies."

Sakura frowns slightly, because anyone who stands up to a jounin missing nin and lives to tell the tale should be proud of themselves, not embarrassed at simply being _seen_.

"It's okay, Hinata. I haven't seen you in ages, I was wondering if you'd like to catch up? I never really talked to you in school and I would like to make up for it now, if you'll let me." She offers a gentle smile, and Hinata nods hesitantly, stepping away from the stall.

"A-ano, where w-would you like to go, Sakura-san?" She mumbles, and Sakura takes in the way she presses her fingers together, lets her hair obscure her expression.  
Instead of speaking she takes the girl's hand- eliciting a startled squeak; and gently leads her over to a little park, sitting down on a bench underneath a tree and motioning the other genin to sit next to her.

More hesitation before the girl finally does, perching like a scared baby bird, all hollow bones and nerves.

"Y-you've changed q-quite a bit, Sakura-san." Her voice is tremulous, whispery. "Y-you never used t-to wear your hair back!" She smiles weakly, and Sakura returns it, putting in the effort to make it warm and reassuring.

"You can just call me Sakura, Hinata. And I had a bit of a wake up call. It's been good for me, and the team. What about your team? How are you doing? Is your sensei out of the hospital yet?" She keeps her tone calm, friendly, doesn't want to scare her off. Hinata shrugs slightly.

"K-Kiba and S-Shino are v-very good teammates, b-but they... do argue quite a bit..." A little smile flicks across her face, fond. "A-and Kurenai sensei is d-doing very well! S-she will be r-returning with us to a-active duty at the end of the w-week." Her stutter fades slightly as she nods, pale eyes shining happily- and then she seems to realise she's expressing positive emotion and she ducks her head again, hides behind her hair and bites her lip. Sakura frowns. She never answered the question of how she was doing, personally.  
Sakura squares her shoulders slightly. She's not the person she was at the academy; she's not going to simply shrug off her fellow genin's unhealthy behaviour, leave it for someone else to deal with. She wants to make positive connections again, ones that aren't tainted by her previous crush on Sasuke; and she doesn't like the idea of her comrades being sad or hurt or _scared_ , even if they aren't her team. (She brushes off the fear in Ino's eyes, etched into her brain at night, pretends she isn't compensating for something she can't fix with anything but time.)

"Alright, Hinata, lets go shopping together; and get some lunch! We can talk about training and how we deal with the silly boys on our teams, huh? What _would_ they do without us!"

It coaxes a soft giggle from the Hyuuga's lips and a tentative smile and Sakura takes her hand again, standing. "I know just where to go first!" She grins, and watches Hinata relax now that she doesn't feel so scrutinised.

Yeah, she's going to befriend the heck out of this girl, and then she's going to beat up whoever made her so sad and scared in the first place. She's read her psychology books, there's no way there isn't an external force that made this timid behaviour an ingrained defence mechanism. They walk side by side and Sakura fills the air with chatter, always keeping an eye on the pale girl beside her, avoiding any topics that make her shoulders tense or her face fall. She's working it out, she thinks, because Hinata's stutter is getting less pronounced and she's holding eye contact the more Sakura makes her laugh.

Later on; when Kakashi waves her and Sasuke off to spar on their own, Asuma has left and Naruto has stopped complaining about the lack of respect seal makers get, she wonders why Hinata is so very reclusive, if all it takes to get her to open up is to simply talk and spend time with her. She knows now that she loves orchids and the colour of the leaves in autumn; that she looks up to her sensei and she lost her mother very young, and that the stutter goes away after a while if she gets distracted enough to let it fall. She can now say that Hinata is her friend.

She can now say that Hinata never, ever brings up her family in conversation of her own volition.

...

"Sasukkeeeeeeee!"

The excited yell carries- presumably for miles, given the vocal cords of the one yelling, and he rolls his eyes, but he'll never admit it's out of fond amusement. He braces himself for impact, politely excusing himself from the stall owner he was talking to, locks his knees; and only skids forward a foot when his teammate reaches said impact point. The blonde clambers up like some kind of monkey and wraps his legs around Sasuke's waist, arms around his shoulders as he peers over his head.

"Are you buying _cabbage_ Sasuke? Gross! Lettuce is way better." The stall owner scowls up at Naruto, eye twitching, and he resigns himself to getting no chores done today. His peaceful Saturday has been kidnapped, ransomed and then murdered directly after payment anyway.

"All you can do with cabbage is boil it, and it makes your whole house smell gross for days and doesn't even taste good-"  
Sasuke mutters a hasty goodbye to the stall owner and starts walking, ignoring the many and varied looks his passenger garners.

"-and lettuce has crunch and it's so good in salad with some mayo-"

"What do you want, Naruto?" He interrupts, trying not to smile.

"Well, you see, my Brooding-Uchiha senses were tingling- actually they were itching and then I farted like, three times in a row so I KNEW I had to go bug you. Obviously." He swings himself forward and it's only practice that keeps Sasuke upright and still walking as he gets a mouthful of blonde hair, Naruto's beaming grin blinding him, face upside down over his.  
Sasuke splutters, scowling. "Naruto I can't see; move your head. And what do you mean farting three times means you have to annoy me- does it happen often enough you view it as a sign?" He raises an eyebrow, but the expressions that make other genin (and even a few adults) sweat nervously do nothing to his overly exuberant friend.

"Only when I have to eat _cabbage_!" He cackles, and Sasuke puts a hand over his face, pushing him out of the way and ignoring the muffled complaints.

"Some people like cabbage, Naruto." He huffs.

"Only old people and you."

"Naruto I will drop you in a garbage bin."

"Brooding Uchiha alert!"

Sasuke rounds a corner with a smile on his face as Naruto teases him; only to freeze, face to face with Kiba.

"Hey Kiba!" Naruto waves cheerfully, violent enough he nearly falls off his Uchiha perch.

Sasuke can feel the embarrassment creeping up his neck. He doesn't care about the civilians; but a fellow genin seeing him carrying his teammate around like an oversized child- and smiling! Uchiha don't smile at acquaintances! Kiba has seen something he never should have seen. People will start thinking he's _soft_. The fangirls will get more vicious. Other kids won't be put off by his scowl anymore. He will have to _socialise_.

The silence continues for several minutes, Kiba's eyes flicking between Sasuke's eerily blank expression and up to Naruto's cheerful grin, then back again.

Akamaru barks, and the Inuzuka shakes himself slightly. "Uh, hi! Haven't seen you in ages. Um. Im just- just gonna go." He nods, picks up his dog ('-but Kiba Naruto scratches the best spots on my stomach c'mon-') and hightails it out of there. Shino and Hinata will be just as confused, and that's some consolation.

Sasuke Uchiha, academy-crowned king of the emos, smiling. He checks the sky for flying pigs.

"..."

"Naruto."

"Yeah Sasuke?"

"If word gets out that I'm _approachable_ or _playful_... I will make you suffer."

"Ahah... Not my fault!"

"What?! Of course it's your fault, you're why I was smiling!"

"SASUKE! You DO care!"

"I will destroy every ramen stand within fire country Naruto don't test me-"

"YOU CAAAAARRREEEE ABOUT MEEEEEE-"

...

Kakashi arrives at the training ground to gather his kids up for dinner and is greeted by the two boys he's in charge of rolling around on the grass. He's witnessed three attempts at hair pulling, a successful bite, and a total of five blocked knees to the groin from both parties; and he's been standing here less than a minute. Whether or not this started as an actual spar is up for debate. He shuffles over to Sakura, sitting by the nearest tree and reading a book.

"Wha-"

"No idea sensei. They were like this when I got here. Naruto kept yelling about friendship. Sasuke stuck grass in his mouth." She looks up briefly as the blonde starts screaming again. "Twice now. You'd think Naruto would stop giving him the opportunity."

She turns the page.

"... We could always go get dinner and just leave them here."

"You're my favourite, sensei."

Naruto wails from where he's having his face smooshed into the ground.

"But Sakura I thought I was your favourite?!"

Sasuke scoffs. _"I'm_ her favourite. Obviously."

"Shut up you emo there's no way Sakura-chan enjoys your company over _mine_ -"

She and Kakashi watch, matching amusement in their eyes as the tussle starts up again, Naruto latching his teeth onto one of Sasuke's ears as the other boy whacks at his stomach.

"Fuck, my earring, be careful dobe!"

The muffled response is truly unintelligible and Naruto seems to realise, flicking a hand out in front of Sasuke's face and signing messily instead. ' _Wrong. Target. Other. Leaf.'_

Kakashi coughs. "You mixed up the Leaf and Quiet signs again, Naruto."

The blonde removes his teeth in time to scowl as Sasuke squirms out from his grasp.

"ANBU code is stupid! The signs shouldn't be so similar."

...

Kakashi wakes in his tiny apartment with a grunt, cold sweat trickling down his back as he hauls himself up, long limbs tangling briefly in the sheets before he manages to stagger out of the grasping cloth, hobbles towards the bathroom and vomits into the tub, not fast enough to reach the toilet. He heaves, breathing through his nose as his gut churns, scrabbles at the cabinet under the sink to his right, still half bent over the tub and the sour bile slowly slipping down the drain. He's got his fingers hooked in a small bag when the next wave hits him and he blinks back tears as his throat burns and his abdomen tenses in pulses, spilling all of last night's dinner out in foul chunks.  
He waits a moment. Breathes. Turns to the bag and pulls it into his lap, takes out a packet of pills and pops one into his mouth, swallowing dry. He tucks the bag back under the cabinet, stands on wobbly legs and washes his mouth out over the sink, spits lingering bile before turning the shower on to wash away the remains of his nausea.

Lower in his torso he twinges, a deep pull of cramping muscles and he sighs; tries to count the weeks since the last time he visited a medic. Too long, he assumes, bares his teeth and strips, steps into the shower to wash away his sweat and scowl as blood follows vomit down the drain.

Hours later he emerges from the hospital, still early enough the grass hasn't quite dried from the night's rain, absently sucking on a slow release soldier pill and his nose buried in one of his favoured Icha Icha volumes as he wanders down the streets towards Naruto's apartment, paperwork heavy in the pocket of his jounin vest. He takes the stairs two at a time, noting the rotten wood creak under his feet- a definite sign of carelessness, if even a shinobi's light step is a burden- but the whole complex is in dire need of repair, so it's not really so surprising. (He's got a bet with Sakura as to when Naruto claims one of the empty Uchiha houses. She thinks Sasuke will have to invite him, Kakashi thinks he'll just move in overnight to Sasuke's utter displeasure.)

He raps three times with the back of his knuckles and is rewarded with a long, loud groan and shuffling footsteps before the door swings open.

Kakashi snickers. Naruto peers up at him with ink smears on his cheek and his hair flattened on one side, and the older man can't help but reach down and ruffle spiky blonde strands. "Training is a bit earlier today, I came to make sure you'd be up and at it- also to pass on the very important duty of waking your teammates." He pauses, examines his book for dramatic effect. "After all, we need to discuss you entering the chuunin exams-"

"You smell like blood." Naruto snaps, steamrolling right through Kakashi's words without a second thought, and he's touched by the worry in the blonde's eyes and the fact the chuunin exams seem to take a far second in importance to his student.

"Maa, terribly sorry Naru-chan." He drawls, tucks his book into his pocket. "But I have to go grocery shopping, you know, so I can't stick around to answer any questions-"

"You smell like Sakura does, sensei. Are you... are you two sick...?"

His big blue eyes are so genuinely terrified, tears welling up at the mere thought of two members of his self made family being in a sort of danger he can't help them escape, that Kakashi melts, and steps inside.

"Let's sit, Naruto. What did the academy teach you about gender?" He asks, closes the door behind him and Naruto curls his fingers in the fabric of Kakashi's sleeve, still sleepy and childlike from the exhaustion, his usual exuberant mask not yet in play.

"Only that girls can carry babies but men can't... But I missed a lot of lessons." He adds, under his breath, eyes narrow. "But sensei if you and Sakura are _hurt_ -"

"Do you smell the same blood on other people?"

The blonde has to think for a moment before blinking. "Oh. Yes. All the women smell like it sometimes- like old blood and flesh... So it's not dangerous?" He slumps, relieved, even as Kakashi quietly explains periods, his eyes darting as he takes it in.

"That sounds really sucky." He grunts, tiredly rubs one eye, relaxed now the panic is gone. "Girls have it tough; I'm glad I have a penis- wait, sensei, why do _you_ smell like it then?" He squints at the tall male, who coughs nervously.

"Well, some people aren't uh. Always born in the right body."

Naruto takes a long, long moment to consider; then nods.

"Like Hinata? She always smelled like a boy but she wears dresses. I asked her once why she wore them when she was a boy and she said she was a girl, and then she started crying so I was too busy panicking while the teacher yelled to ask her anything. But I said sorry the next day and said she was a very pretty girl and she went bright red and ran away so I don't think she likes me much."

Kakashi laughs so hard he can feel the ever-warm eye under his hitai-ate water in mirth, shoulders shaking harshly.

Naruto leaps to his feet mid-pout in sudden realisation- a grin splitting his face. "YOU SAID THE CHUUNIN EXAMS!"

...

:Don't mind me rubbing my nasty trans hands together before slathering them all over my favourite characters-:  
:cassianaswindell123- I always thought it was interesting how as soon as they get back into the village from any kind of mission everything is suddenly 'normal'. Especially with the short travel times- in WW1 people had to suffer the long months of coming home and that allowed them to adjust to life off a battlefield. Remove the adjustment time and you are going straight from a warzone to peaceful territory. It must be jarring.  
magi97- I am SO SO bad at summaries it isn't funny, so I am really glad you gave it a chance anyway!  
Man285- Thanks! I adore seal user Naruto fics, my ultimate favourite would be MayWren's Myushou no fuin. It's unfinished but I just adore the character styles.  
The Cat's Paw- Have I mentioned your user image is adorable? Because it is. Thank you for all the reviews!  
laurajustin- Hope it's to your liking!  
Blackdrake- Hey, I am drama CENTRAL, but thank you SO MUCH for your positive words! I have a few ideas for the forest of death that I think will be pretty interesting~ there is also a lot of badass Sakura coming up so. Look forward to that! I will try not to die before the story is complete, just for you ok?  
TheForgottenSpartan- Hi I have been laughing at your powder keg description for ten minutes please send help.  
SheIsKaraM- There will be discussions in the future, you will have to wait and see! Your review made me cry a little because the idea of someone actually liking my writing so much they kept rereading it is... Wow. You helped make me determined to save these chapters and post them ASAP, so thank you!: 

:I will be proofreading the ninth chapter tonight right after posting this so it should be up in a few days at the most!:


	9. Chapter 9

:This one is pretty short, sorry!:

...

...

"So. Chuunin exams." Naruto hums, body sore from the day's work, idly digging his nails into the wood of the sparring post he's perched on, watching Sasuke make sudden, abrupt turns and dodges in seemingly random patterns out in the middle of the field, the occasional glint of wire catching the light. Sakura hums, lashing out quickly in a series of strikes against the solid wood Naruto is using as his pedestal, making it shudder from the force behind the blows. He doesn't even shift in his balance, and she knows that while he looks bored and relaxed, he has several leaves swirling all over his body under his clothes, and two chakra threads attached to the seemingly levitating rocks three feet behind him.

"Yeah. Kakashi said it's a good idea to do these ones because they'll give us home field advantage. Plus, quicker promotions, right?"

"Sasuke doesn't seem too thrilled though. I think we're ready."

"It's because he hasn't gotten his sharingan yet. It's been bugging him. He's getting grumpy." Three strikes, two kicks, three strikes. _Faster_ , she thinks.

"Yeah, he's going back to his teme roots. I don't know how to tell him like, gently that he's ten times the ninja his brother is even without the fancy red eyes. They're already fancier than anyone else's. Even without the sharingan he's better at tracking movement than any of us."  
Three strikes, needle thin holes in the wood, perfect scalpel punctures. "I know how you feel. He scared Hinata today too. We were having lunch together and he just stormed up to the food stand and stared at her, for a full minute, then told me to be at the compound tonight. Poor thing was sweating and pale. He's scarier than he thinks sometimes."

"I call it the patented Uchiha Brood™. Unless you have gone through exposure therapy like us, it can be quite unpleasant."

"Naruto, that's terrible; and hilarious." The post is riddled with holes.

"I'm glad you acknowledge my comedic genius." He pauses. "Man, you've made it look like an Aburame's arms. Damn Sakura."

"Oh, whatever. How are your 'tails' coming?"

"Kakashi was definitely on to something when he suggested it. Without the leaves as buffers they're like battering rams of chakra. Good brute force tactic, and I think they'd be good at breaking through defences- earth jutsu and the like. If I concentrate super hard or make more of them I can get them down to about the width of a coin. And it's not like I can't afford to throw chakra around." The blonde grins, offsetting his rather eloquent speech by picking his nose, to which Sakura scowls in disgust.

"Good. It's already helping with your chakra control. Your genjutsu are getting even more precise." Three strikes. The post shudders again.

"So why are you so pissed, Sakura?"

"My scrolls say it's possible, with the right timing, to make the scalpel appear under the opponents skin, leaving no exit wound for them to bleed out of. Internal haemorrhaging with nowhere for the blood to go can be fatal much quicker than blood loss- _but it's really hard_."

"You'll get it eventually, you always do- but holy shit. Remind me never to piss you off."

She pauses and grins up at him. "Good life advice. How do you feel about the significance of calling the threads your tails?" She bends down, stretching out and leaning to the side as she does her cool down routine.

"I actually kind of like it. I mean, it feels good? Taking what people hate about me and using it, flaunting it even. It makes me feel better about the glares I still get. Y'know?" He hums, and Sakura watches a glowing blue thread extend from the base of his spine and wind down to attach itself to another rock before fading from view as the stone rises.

"I know. I think we all do."

"I really think we can do this. I mean, you and Sasuke are the coolest teammates ever and I think I'm not a dead last anymore, right? I think doggy-sensei believes in us too. I want to try for chuunin." He nods firmly.

Sakura reaches up and pushes him off the post, leaves fluttering out of the sleeves of his clothes as he falls with a yelp, the rocks thudding to the ground as his concentration is broken.

"Sakura! Why have you betrayed me like this?!" He wails, and she rolls her eyes and helps him up.

"Come on, I need your special ability to unfuck Sasuke's mood so we can get promoted."

"Maybe that's my bloodline. My unnatural power to cheer up Uchihas."

"I would not be surprised."

...

The staff room of the academy is deathly silent- apart from the echoing laughter of children playing outside, freed of their studies for the lunch break. Iruka blinks; unaffected as he sips his coffee, sitting in one of the chairs surrounding the teacher's table. One of the math teachers finally works up the courage to move, hands reaching out in a placating manner.

"Ah, K-Kakashi-san... w-would you please-" his voice trails into an embarrassingly high pitched squeak of fear as the lightning currently fuelling the oppressive atmosphere crackles with chakra. Iruka wonders if Kakashi did that on purpose- it would demonstrate an impressive amount of control over the jutsu. Then again, the chidori _was_ created by him.

"Well, you see teacher-san, I would have come here much sooner- say, directly after passing my _remarkably gifted_ team, perhaps, but I've just been so busy training these incredibly smart children I've been saddled with. It's only now that I'm getting enough of a break to actually come here with this question- why are two of my students written down as insipid fools, another one of them that was obviously marked for psychological help ignored, and a certain exuberant child forced out of classrooms to the point where he gave up attending the lessons in the first place?"

Iruka slurps his coffee obnoxiously loudly just to watch the other chuunin twitch in agitation. One even sends a quick glare his way. He raises an eyebrow.

"I- I can assure you Kakashi-san that your accusations are very misinformed, we would never treat any child with such prejudice or falsify a report-"

Iruka grabs his bento up off the table just in time for Kakashi's hand to come down and scythe through the wood, splintering it. It collapses, plates and cups shattering and even a few stacks of paperwork flying into the mess. He can hear one of the newer teachers crying.  
The jounin flexes his hand, still wreathed in the crackling white equivalent of instant death, and kicks a slab of wood absently out of the way as he approaches the huddle of teachers. Iruka notes the principal trying not to piss himself.

"If I ever hear of any kind of mistreatment towards any. Child. Here. Again... If I even get a hint that there are incorrect reports on students being handed out to my jounin-sensei comrades... I will come back, and I will kill you all." The chakra dissipates and he eye-smiles at the room, suddenly obnoxiously cheerful.  
"Thanks for listening! Ne, Iruka-san, Naru-chan says hiiii!" He waves and hops out the open window, leaving whimpering chuunin and broken furniture in his wake.  
Iruka sips his coffee again.

...

"B-ranked?" Sasuke murmurs, eyes scanning over the scroll in his hands even as Sakura and Naruto start debating long term mission supplies together, Sakura even pulling out her notebook to write down a list, the blonde pointing out items she doesn't think of. He's surprisingly sharp when he wants to be.

"Yes, B-ranked. It would usually be assigned to a chuunin team at the least, but I'm obviously the Hokage's favourite jounin, so when I asked him for it he told the mission desk to give it to me!" Kakashi poses triumphantly, eye curved into his signature smile.

"You stole it off the mission desk." Sasuke rasps, unimpressed. Kakashi sighs.  
"I stole it off the mission desk. But that's not important- what is important is that it's a three day mission involving a border patrol on the edge of Fire and Sand that hasn't reported in for two full days. We are allies with Sand, which means we will have to make peace with any of their shinobi also patrolling the border, but they're pretty short staffed and hard up on money right now; so we might not even interact with them. We haven't really gone on any missions outside of Fire country, and I believe adding another B rank to your list would be a good move before the chuunin exams."

"Three days... that means we'd only get a few days of training in before the exams start. Are you sure about this, Sensei?"

Kakashi inclines his head and Sasuke takes the gesture for what it is, eyes scanning quickly over the details lower down the scroll.  
"They talk about bandit activity but there's no way a three chuunin border patrol near allied lands would be taken down by that kind of firepower. It doesn't sound right." He hisses lightly, rolling the scroll back up and handing it to the jounin.  
"We will see you at the gates at 6 am, sensei."

"I look forward to it. The trip is about half a day, given your current top speed, so I'm sure I'll be able to impart some wisdom upon my cute little students while we are on mission." Kakashi winks- or he could be blinking very exaggeratedly. It's hard to tell when only one eye is visible. He's gone before Sasuke can even twitch, but he does nod in sympathy when Sakura groans behind him.

"What a drama queen. Hinata says Kurenai is so straightforward and kind. Must be nice."

"Apparently Asuma is even lazier than our sensei was at the start. All he does is sit and play shogi with Shikamaru while Ino complains and Choji naps. Kakashi says he's waiting for them to take initiative as a team, but Shikamaru is _way_ too lazy for that." Naruto hums from Sasuke's other side, draped over his shoulders and pressing his cheek into Sasuke's neck. Sakura moves to stand in front of them as the blonde yawns loudly in his ear, still writing rapidly in her notebook.  
Sasuke shrugs with the shoulder not currently weighed down by Konoha's self-proclaimed number one unpredictable ninja- though he can't really deny it; given that he is, in fact, very unpredictable. Sometimes he really regrets teaching the other boy the interceptor style, simply because he's now impossible to read in a spar, leaving you always reacting to him, which is dangerous. Especially when he layers those damn explosive seals with camouflage seals. They may only explode ink, but it's bright orange and a pain to get out of fabric.

"I think we did pretty well. If we had gotten Gai we would be taijutsu powerhouses, but also completely insane."

"The kind of insane that wears hideous green jumpsuits and yells 'youth!' at the top of their lungs." Sakura hums absently.

"Hey, Lee is pretty cool! He's always up for a spar and I'm getting a lot tougher being his partner. I can't quite keep up but I'm getting there!" Naruto chimes gleefully.

"I'm going to kill him. He's the one who broke your pelvis. You said you fell out of a tree. I knew you were lying. Did you let him konoha senpuu you?!" Sakura shakes her fist, all her focus suddenly on the blonde boy doing his best to hide behind Sasuke, notebook forgotten.

"W-what? Nooooo..."

"Please, calm down. We have other things to worry about. Like why a border patrol went missing patrolling the _border of our sworn allies_." Sasuke says, eye twitching slightly.  
It's tough being the team leader. It's tough and no one understands.

...

:Next chapter on it's way pretty soon as well. Figured I would post this straight away because it's so short, just to make it not so disappointing a wait!  
rosyhatake- Love the profile pic, gorgeous art; and I'm glad you approve!:


	10. Chapter 10

:Hey hey hey sorry I'm late! Again, no beta, we die like men. Also I am crap at fight scenes forgive me:

...

They move silently; impact softened by the chakra circling through their feet, and Kakashi grins his pride in his students through his mask. It doesn't take long for his good mood to falter, however, and he motions his students to stop on a branch with him.  
Sasuke is the first to crouch next to the jounin, eyes serious.  
"Sensei, what's really going on. You have to have some idea."  
Naruto lands with a soft grunt, Sakura right behind him, and he nods.  
"Sasuke is right. This mission stinks- chuunin from Konoha can only be taken down by other chuunin or higher; and I've never seen that much skill in bandits."  
Sakura narrows her eyes at Naruto's words as they settle together in a circle on the thick branch. "You think it's something to do with sand, don't you sensei?"  
He lets out a sigh, pauses to think. "Yes. I've noticed them calling in a lot of deliveries that pretty much amount to war supplies. Not the usual shinobi resupply amount- it's not adding up; and I want to know what exactly is going on. Our first mission is of course to secure the border and find out what happened to the patrol- but if we manage to overhear anything about what Suna could be planning; that would be ideal." The genin nod, expressions severe.  
"Suna are our sworn allies. If they were planning a large scale attack their Kage would meet with ours to discuss it; because Konoha is bound to defend Suna if the enemy strikes back at them. So if they are planning for war, and they haven't told us... worst case is they're attacking _us_ ; but they'd never win on their own." Sakura bites her lip, eyes narrowed in thought.  
"Could also be that they're breaking our alliance to join with, say, Iwa instead, and are stocking up in case we seek retribution." Naruto adds, scowling deeply.  
"It makes me nervous." Sasuke hisses lowly, and Sakura and Naruto almost automatically reach out to touch him in reassurance. "We don't have enough information- and we have no way of getting it, which means we have to wait and react to their moves. It gives them control and I don't like it."  
Kakashi nods slowly. "You're right, it's not the best situation. But there really isn't much we can do. I've already passed on my suspicions to the Hokage- our only option is to complete the mission and hope for something to fall into our hands."  
None of them look particularly pleased about that.

...

Sasuke runs his fingers over the handle of his favored hand-to-hand kunai, eyes sharp as he keeps watch over the campsite. In another hour it will be Sakura's shift, then Naruto for the last one. Kakashi always goes on watch first- an odd little detail that they've never argued with.  
It doesn't really matter, and is, perhaps, not odd at all.  
Naruto doesn't tell them what he found in his curiosity, curling round his local haunts like a wisp of smoke in the underbelly of Konoha- and they don't ask why he knows them like the back of his hand when he was supposed to be safe in the orphanage, or why he only whispered 'friendkiller' to Kakashi- only seen by attuned Uchiha eyes as Sasuke read his lips from across the training grounds- and that was enough to have Kakashi drop to his heels, crouching and exchanging near-silent words. Naruto had held him, for a moment, and then bounced back over as if nothing had occurred.  
They don't question. Sasuke doesn't want to know it, and Sakura has learned well not to pry.

They'd checked in with the border watch tower- rotated shifts of guards acting as a supply chain to long term patrols; and doubling as reinforcement if necessary. It's a good system; if a bit tiring. They'd had to fill in a fair bit of paperwork to signify the start of their patrol, and Sasuke's hand is still slightly cramped- Naruto had to fill his in three separate times because his handwriting was so horrible.  
The problem, of course, and the reason he's so damn agitated, is that they'd spent the first day looking for traces of the previous patrol. They'd found plenty.  
This would be good- if not for the fact they lacked any of the Konoha callsigns that border patrols are required to leave behind- meaning that each leftover camp they'd come across was a decoy. And that's far too smart for simple bandits, and the planted signs of simple bandit scuffle.  
They wouldn't have bothered.  
Someone wants to lead them off the trail; and that worries him.  
He feels Sakura coming long before he sees or hears her; a testament to how much she's improved since the academy. She sits next to him, hands him a box thicker than his wrist and about as long as his forearm.  
"Naruto went with Kakashi to the market a couple of days ago. He wanted to give it to you himself; but he thought his exuberance might be a bit overwhelming. He's becoming self aware." She smiles softly, and he blinks as he opens the gift, eyes widening at the shiny black blades nestled within.  
"Kukri..." he murmurs, and she laughs softly.  
"Kakashi said he'd help you adjust to them in hand to hand. Sorry to replace your favorite kunai, Sasu."  
He grins and leans on her shoulder, takes a deep breath as she puts her hand on his knee, parts her lips in a soft whisper.  
"You're not any less of a shinobi or an Uchiha for not having the sharingan, Sasuke. We wouldn't trade you for anyone." If he cries, she says nothing, and only the forest bears witness.

...

Naruto kicks a tree hard enough the wood cracks and it groans dangerously; causing the rest of his team to stiffen in concern. "Fuck! Not a single damn thing the whole time we've been here." He hisses, this time shoving his hand into the sturdy bark, sinking down to the quick of his claws before tearing them back out, sending splinters everywhere.  
"Naru; frustration isn't helping anything."  
The blonde sighs, shoulders falling slack, anger drained out of him.  
"But what else can we do, Sakura? There's absolutely nothing left of them. I couldn't pick up a single damn scent or trail; and all of the sites were planted. It's like they got here and were vanished off the face of the earth- eaten by the sand before they could even set up." He bares his teeth as he wanders back over to his team, kicking at said sand pointedly, and they start walking again.  
"Look, all we can do is inform the watch tower guards and then get back to Konoha. I'm sure a proper tracking team will be sent out- hopefully before the chuunin exams." Kakashi reaches over and ruffles long blonde strands, coming dangerously close to dislodging his ponytail and headband all at once. Naruto responds with flailing hands as he slaps him away.  
"I know! It's just... frustrating. They're our people. It doesn't feel right leaving without finding anything." His blue eyes slide sideways, cool instead of warm, and Sakura wonders how many times Naruto has been _left_.  
Sasuke nudges him slightly.  
"Don't worry. Something will turn up. We have the best tracking clans out of all the hidden villages, remember?" It rings hollow in his throat, but luckily Naruto doesn't seem to realize, though Kakashi eyes him for a second.  
"True." Naruto mumbles, and Sakura slings an arm over his shoulder.  
"Yeah- we gotta focus on the chuunin exams anyway. And we know now at least one part of it involves forest survival. You're not subtle, sensei."  
Kakashi splutters at the accusing gaze of three young eyes, deeply offended.  
"Excuse you! I am _extremely_ subtle. Tell her, Sasuke!"  
Sasuke snorts.

" _My students have no respect for meeeee..."_  
As his teammates laugh, Naruto looks over his shoulder, blue eyes narrowed as he scans the canopy far above- the smell of blood and sand carried faintly on the wind. Kakashi catches his eye, and narrows his own in turn, and Naruto takes the unspoken command for what it is. A warning. Because Kakashi has been aware of their watcher this whole time; and though he's impressed even _one_ of his genin noticed, it would have been better if he had not.  
After all, he would have taken this mission alone if he could have; but the Hokage would only accept the excuse of team building. And now his students are a level deeper than he wanted them in the political turmoil he can practically smell on the horizon like a storm.

...

Kakashi snorts under his breath as he walks into the main clearing of their training ground, thoroughly amused at the sight before him and laden with bags of food, the three forms he's been lugging around tucked into one pocket of his vest.  
His baby birds are _nesting_ , all three of them flopped over each other in a little divot in the grass, napping in the warm sunlight. Naruto snores slightly, mouth open and splayed on his back, Sakura draped over his stomach and tucked into one tan shoulder and Sasuke with one arm thrown over them both protectively and curled into a ball on his other side. Kakashi takes a moment to note that they're all filling out well- Sakura especially has gained a few inches in height and is starting to become very lean and wiry in the arms, tight muscle defined under her pale skin. Naruto is shorter, thin and delicate like his father- he'll probably stay relatively short, though his shoulders get broader like his mother's and his legs stronger every day; but Sasuke is going to be a veritable tank when he reaches adulthood; he can tell. He has a different body than the classic slim Uchiha build, and Kakashi ponders foisting the boy off on Gai for a while to make proper use of it.

He hurls a kunai down an inch to the left of Naruto's ankle and is pleased when Sakura's whole body shifts upwards, hand snapping out and grabbing the handle before the blade sinks even halfway into the grass. Sasuke is a tense line on the ground, eyes open and wary, lips pursed for a grand fireball, and Naruto has the beginnings of a seal playing at his fingers.  
"Rise and shine baby birds! As much as I approve of you all taking a moment to rest and recuperate from all the training, I bring both food and exam forms."  
Naruto fires off a simple water jutsu just to spite him, and Kakashi ducks out of the way of the wide spray.  
"Oi oi! You wanna go all the way up to the Hokage's tower and ask for new forms? Yeah, I didn't think so, brat." Naruto scowls, but rolls up into a sitting position with a wide yawn, sharp teeth on display for a brief moment, leading into dark gums; more like a fox's than a human's pink. He wonders why he never noticed before, then figures it's probably because when Naruto has his mouth that open, he's spitting fire. Literally. He curses the day he showed Naruto how to multicast fire and wind jutsu's; especially with that damn affinity of his, mixing them into an unnatural vortex that promises an ashy death.  
He replaces himself, dropping the food gently when he lands, and then Sakura is on him and he has to bend at the waist, slap her wrist harshly and twist to sweep her legs out from under her with a kick when she's off balance. He doesn't get to take advantage of her arching back as she tries to flip up and catch herself in a backwards cartwheel, because glinting wire flicks out centimeters from his hand, and he snaps his fingers backward hurriedly, one hand flicking a kunai from his pouch at Naruto behind him, the other tapping the wire and sending electricity arcing back towards its owner, who curses and drops the line in favor of a set of lightning jutsu of his own, two wolves dashing across the grass.  
Kakashi twists and replaces himself again as the hands of a clone reach up from the earth to try and anchor him for the wolves; and instead Naruto's bullet wind pierces and annihilates one of the constructs.  
He can feel Sasuke glare at the sheepish blonde; and it's a rare pleasure these days, but turning his student's usually devastating combo attacks against each other is delightfully funny.  
He has little time to revel, anchoring himself to the side of a tree trunk only to have Sakura flash next to him, a paper seal fluttering from her forehead as she strikes out, one hand holding her body up and sideways off the bark to lash a spinning kick at him. He's forced to block, briefly, and then decides this little spar has gone on long enough.  
He lifts his forehead protector-

"No, I'm out, it's too late for this, I just want my dinner." Naruto calls from the base of the tree, and Sakura deflates.  
"I'm not replacing that visibility seal either, Sakura. He's a pain in the ass when he's going easy on us, I am not dealing with the hell eye. I have had a full day of practicing against _Sasuke's_ hell eyes and he doesn't even have them properly."  
Sasuke snickers, and Kakashi notes that he's migrated to one of the trees nearby, perfectly positioned to pin Kakashi down with senbon while Sakura distracts him.  
Ah, he's so proud of the sneaky little bastard.  
He drops down with a disappointed Sakura close behind, dusting himself off cheerfully as he pulls the fabric back down over his eye.  
"Alright baby birds! Food, and then some lovely little forms to sign- so if you die we aren't responsible, obviously." He raises his gaze to Naruto, who's already got three onigiri in his mouth- at the same time.  
"Not that you'll die, of course. If you do, I'll have to make sure kami assigns you laps for eternity."

...

...

:Oh man I am exhausted. I finally have my sleep back in kind of routine tho so hopefully I will be feeling energetic enough to actually stitch together all the patchwork scenes I have written... I have one big swathe written for something like... eight chapters and a whole arc away. Why am I like this. Send food for the troops (my hands, cramped from the keyboard) and clean sheets for the nurses (my pillows, which I weep into every three minutes):

Chase Network: I am interested to hear what relationships you think I am hinting at...~ And Hinata is a trans woman, while Kakashi is a trans man. They both started transitioning very young but Kakashi had considerably more support and resources than Hinata has. Hope that clears it up! Hinata is not a 'trap'. The only traps here are the orange paint pranks Naruto is so fond of! :)  
Great: (The Hyuuga are **REDACTED** on the subject)  
SheIsKaraM: Bold of you to assume the exam will awaken it, muahaha... I am so happy to hear you are enjoying this! It really gives me YOUTHFUL ENERGY and the WILL AND YOUTH to continue YOUTHFULLY WRITING! And yes, Kakashi did... He is, after all, a vindictive bastard when it comes to his baby birds. Hope to hear from you in a future review! The boys definitely deserve healthy happy love... It's nice to write it, and nicer to have people enjoy reading it.  
rosyhatake: "That concludes this lecture on 'why these three children are MY children and any harm you inflict on them I will return tenfold on your ass' please take the provided leaflets titled 'Love the Orange Boy' and 'Sasuke Didn't Have to be Emo'."- Direct quote from Kakashi, I swear it is.  
laurajustin: Sorry for the delay, hope it was worth your patience! 


	11. Chapter 11

:... I'm sorry lol. No excuses. Please accept my humble offering.:

...

...

Naruto is sweating in front of her, nervous beads rolling down his forehead as he clenches and releases his fists again and again, nails digging into his skin. She'd tell him to stop, but he looks on the verge of screaming, and possibly setting the building on fire, and he's three feet ahead of her and she'd be disqualified for interacting with him.

After all, it's a stress test. Comfort isn't allowed.  
They'd been doing so well. Forms signed and in hand, Kakashi had parted ways with them that morning with an encouraging grin; and Sasuke had seen the Genjutsu covering the fake exam room with absolutely no issues, allowing them to skirt the outer edge of the crowd of milling chuunin hopefuls.

Naruto had spotted a very, very green boy coming towards them, winced, and ushered them quickly up the stairs: Sakura had wondered if it was the infamous Rock Lee that had thoroughly trounced Naruto in taijutsu- she made a note to track him down and ask for some tips on improving her reach and flexibility later, as she'd never actually met the boy, (she has vague memories of Sasuke and Naruto having to run laps with them while she did a thousand push ups) and they'd caught up to the real exam room easily.

They'd taken up a position in one of the corners, guarded and eyeing up the other teams, examining them for tells or indications of prowess or specifications, Naruto calmly whispering about what he knows of each village's primary training, what special things they might have - puppets for Suna, poison and senbon for mist- Sasuke scoffs at that and fingers his own senbon pouch. Naruto smirks.

Someone breaks off from their team, grey hair bobbing towards them, a friendly smile.

And then things went wrong, Naruto cringing back from the boy in the glasses, setting Sasuke and Sakura on edge- Naruto happily stood up to every adult they've ever met, and this teen was enough to raise his hackles? She and Sasuke had exchanged a quick glance and then barricaded themselves in front of their blonde. As Sasuke politely distracted the stranger, she turned her head in fake absence, seemingly gazing off into the distance as Naruto used Sasuke's body as a cover to rapidly sign to her, Sasuke staring in polite interest as the taller boy shows him what look like a deck of cards.

'-Scales, snake, oil, death. Recent. Murderer. Foul.-'

She nods imperceptibly and he relaxes, and Sasuke tilts his head as Ino bullrushes them with a squeal of _'Sasukeeee_!'

Naruto gets a wicked look in his eyes and before she can stop him, there's a puff of smoke and a clone steps forward- looking just like Sasuke. It smiles widely, and Sakura feels actual fear at that expression on Sasuke's face, and sweeps Ino up in a hug. She yelps in horror, well aware that this is only a clone, the real Sasuke standing to the side and trying to stifle his laughter with one hand. The strange genin, Kabuto, looks on with bewilderment, but oh- she sees the calculating glint in his eyes.  
She turns back to see Ino whack the clone and fall to the ground with a grunt, before picking herself up and starting to yell at Naruto-

Shikamaru comes up behind her and slaps a hand over her mouth, much to everyone's astonishment, and hisses in Ino's ear. She stops flailing, and gives Naruto a dirty glare.

After an awkward moment, Kabuto steps forwards again.

"You new genin aren't doing yourselves any favours here... drawing all this attention. Now every foreign team is going to single you out..."

He feigns nerves well but now that Sakura is looking for it- she sees the falsity. The slick facade holding over his features and the cold eyes that take everything in. Sasuke takes the moment to mimic Naruto, signing behind his back.

'- Too much mission information. Unknown. Concern. Recon. Chuunin possible. Jounin possible. Spy possible.-'  
Now Naruto is standing stock still in front of her as Morino Ibiki purrs vile, vile things into his ears- she knows, because there's a man next to her saying similar things, and behind her she can almost hear Sasuke's knuckles popping as he clenches his fists tighter and tighter.

"If you try anything we kill the pretty boy first. Nice and slow. Take senbon to the eyes he's so proud of, see how many we can slide into his pupil until he begs us to stop. What do you think of that, _little flower_?"  
He circles her, grinning with sharp teeth. She thinks she's seen him at the mission desk before.  
Her eyes stay straight ahead, fixed on Naruto's shoulder blades as they flex under his vest. She watches sweat bead at his hairline where it's exposed by his high ponytail, up almost in an imitation of Ino's- she wonders if maybe he has Yamanaka blood.

"Pay. Attention. Little flower. Or maybe we'll see if the jinchuuriki can grow back his ears and teeth- maybe we'll pull out his fingernails."  
Sakura starts at that, and the man exchanges a glance with Ibiki. She knows they know but surely mentioning it, even in this situation is still disallowed. Unless, of course, they were testing to see if she knew, if she'd react. Shit. If Naruto is punished for telling her, it'll be her fault for giving it away.  
Then again, it's his right, isn't it? Village secret or not, it's his to keep and give away as he likes. She straightens her posture defiantly.  
This was described as stress testing but oh- something itches at her spine about it. None of them are restrained or have had their weapons removed. They've simply been told to stay still- if it was meant to be a torture simulation surely they'd have put more realism into it instead of simply lined them up, locked the door with a coded seal and then told them all they had to do was stay still and endure for two hours.

No; they're expected to do something here. She sees Naruto's fingers twitch in front of her- and then she spikes her Killing Intent at the same time Naruto and Sasuke do- the man next to her flinches and she whirls, teeth bared as she goes for the throat with a swift chop, his eyes bulging as he becomes unable to breathe and she grabs his wrists, binding him rapidly with his own chakra rope hanging from his belt. She hears Naruto snarl and Ibiki grunt loudly and then Naruto and Sasuke are dumping their respective 'torturers' next to hers and tying them together securely.

She squats down; tilts her head and Sasuke easily hands her a senbon while Naruto holds out a hand full of chakra fire, teeth sharp and blackened gums on display in a horrific grin. She lets one end of the senbon warm to a burning heat, and then hovers it above the face of the ninja who was tormenting her. Maybe his name was Saburo? She can't recall.

"Should I go for the eyes, then, or will you be telling us the code for the door?"  
As Sasuke calmly inputs the code, Naruto stoops and whispers something in Ibiki's ear, and the scarred man's face tenses before he nods imperceptibly; Naruto making his way over to her and Sasuke as the door opens.  
"What did you say?" She murmurs, wondering if perhaps the man crossed a line he shouldn't have as he tormented Naruto, and the blonde had perhaps warned him of his folly- but Naruto raises one shoulder slightly.  
"Told him about Kabuto."

...

Ibiki gazes over the remaining crowd of teams, noting fondly that he'd successfully whittled them down once more- not quite to his usual standards- but perhaps there'd been a stronger crop this year, sturdier- or his employees at T were slacking off. He'd find out soon with their reports.

He claps his hands and smiles, and takes comfort in the shudders of genin.

"Right. More teams than expected but that's fine. The next test begins tomorrow at the gates of the Forest Of Death. Ask your sensei for directions as being later than 9:00 in the morning will have you immediately disqualified, no exceptions. Well? Fuck outta here." His grin turns into a snarl and the teams filter quickly out of the test room they'd gathered in to begin with- he notes the head of bright blonde hair surrounded by pink and black and immediately his thoughts sour and he finds silver hair instead, round glasses. Ah, yes. He'd be watching that one.

...

"So, what can we sneak in do you think?" Naruto mutters, humming softly and already unwrapping an empty scroll, the calligraphy done with a certain flair Sasuke has begun to recognise as unique to Naruto's sealwork. Next to him Sakura taps her chin, reclining back on the ratty couch in Naruto's apartment.

"Well, it's obviously a survival mission. Probably retrieval, or something to put the teams against each other added into the mix. That's just- obvious chuunin skills. Simulating a track mission, B or A rank for a chuunin group." She muses quietly, eyes falling closed. The test today took a lot out of her, Sasuke thinks.  
"Well yeah, any shinobi with half a brain would be able to figure that out. But the forest of death isn't exactly a standard training ground. I figure basic week supplies, food and medicine, but anything out of the ordinary you guys think would be good?" He looks up at them, big blue eyes earnest, and Sasuke tilts his head as one of the clones gathering things from around the apartment sets down a neatly wrapped bundle of kunai and a cooking pot. Naruto quickly seals them, different parts of the scroll activated by other, smaller seals, compartmentalised instead of everything pouring out at once.

He hums. "If we have nightly camps, you should bring more of your sealing supplies to replenish anything you have to use in a fight. And extra soldier pills, for all of us. The trees there are thick enough we can probably avoid rain, and with enemy teams all over the place a tent would make us sitting ducks." Naruto snaps his fingers, grins at Sasuke.

"I'll make up some boundary seals to set around a camp. Alerts and shit. That'll help. I can't set up real protective seals in a wild environment though. Not yet anyway. I'll work on it."  
Sakura smiles at him and one of the clones uses henge, turns into her and grabs Naruto's wallet, little frog face stuffed full.  
"I'm getting dango for you, speak now or forever hold your peace!" He- now she, calls cheerfully, mimicking Sakura's body language almost perfectly.  
"That's fine!" The real Sakura waves a hand. "At least it's not ramen."  
Naruto pouts at that, but is too busy putting the growing pile of supplies away into scrolls, and from there into different little packs that they can fix to their belts, or tie around their shoulders as needed to complain.  
Sasuke smiles, a soft little thing, and quietly thinks that the only one missing is Kakashi sensei, but if he's seen meeting up with them and they blow through the next test, it'll be seen as them somehow being assisted. They want to make him proud, so they'll do this on their own, yet together.

He thinks, maybe, that this is the most precious thing to him, this family he's become a part of. Dragged into it, didn't realise what was to come at the start.

He thinks he'd dig out his own eyes to protect it.

…

Sasuke narrows his gaze at the purple-haired kunoichi at the front of the crowd of gathered genin. He eyes a team from Suna a little ways away, then quickly turns his focus back to her, keeping his senses open as she opens her mouth -

She's almost as loud and exuberant as Naruto, if Naruto had extremely sadistic tendencies, and he immediately decides he cannot be bothered listening to her. He let's Sakura focus on the mission specifics-trusts her to disseminate the important information, and follows his team mates to a little cubicle set up where they are privately given a scroll. One of two, Naruto whispers to him, and he extrapolates that they'll have to fight and find the other scroll to pass. Have to take them both to a tower in the centre, Sakura murmurs lowly as Naruto seals the scroll away, Sasuke using his body to hide what he's doing. Let the other teams have a harder time distinguishing where the scroll might be and who it might be with. He's almost startled when Naruto slips the sealed scroll into his belt pouch, deft fingers as Anko calls out teams and gate numbers and people start filing away, and then warmth blooms in his chest at being his team's go to for guarding the mission item.

They go to their gate when they're called, Sasuke taking point and Sakura lingering behind him, Naruto to the right and a single step behind her. If he looked back at them, he'd be able to see the determination written in their faces, but he's looking forward. Always forward, with them supporting him.  
He doesn't need to see it. He can feel it.

Not much later, Naruto motions for them to pause on a large branch, tucking themselves up against the trunk, eyes pensive.

"Listen. One of the sand nin- the redhead with the gourd? Yeah. He… He feels like me. As in, he has a bijuu inside him. Don't ask how I know. But bringing a jinchuuriki to another village is, it's like an attack isn't it? I mean we're meant to be weapons." He bites at his knuckle nervously, worrying the skin between his teeth.  
"If you can tell, he probably can too, huh?" Sakura murmurs, and Sasuke narrows his eyes.  
"Doesn't matter. We won't lose to him. It just lends weight to what Kakashi was saying about Suna." They nod in response and with that, all three of them continue on their way.

…

Naruto splits into two and the time it takes for the sand to churn through his clone is a millisecond more than he needs to send chakra down his arm (no time for handseals) in an uncontrolled burst and out of his left hand, moving it in a jagged upward sweep faster than he's ever moved before. The wind is much stronger than he'd expected and while it sure as hell redirects the sand straight back to it's source, it also blows him backwards and into the protruding branch of a tree, shoulder first, making him howl in pain. Sakura is already halfway back to him, having turned on her branch as soon as she felt the rush of incoming foreign chakra, and her calloused hands soothe the pulsing pain in his shoulder even as he holds his weight up on his good hand and feet so he's not hanging from the wound, extremely grateful for all the lessons on tree walking as he perches, speared through. Sakura pries him off as Sasuke bares his teeth from the end of the branch, poised for battle, kukri in each hand and the glint of wire on them both; but no one moves to attack again, and Naruto can't smell any presence besides his team.

"Definitely that Suna kid." He hisses as Sakura seals up the wound; pouting at the new hole in his clothes. Sasuke tsks and turns. "You okay? Any other wounds?"  
Sakura shakes her head before Naruto can even reply.

"No; he avoided everything except the tree." This earns her another pout from the blonde; and she grins.

"I'm sure we will get to kick his ass later; don't worry too much about it. He may be like you- but no matter what number he has it's still lower than yours."  
Naruto tilts his head in acceptance; and Sasuke moves back into point as they start off through the trees again.

…

"Hey hey, on our tail." Naruto grunts, slides into a curve and slaps his hands down on the ground, and Sakura catches the tail end of 'underground swamp-' before the ground is muddy and grasping thirty feet along and across. She grins, slaps some genjutsu on the surroundings to make it seem like the only clear path after them, and then they run, Sasuke signing rapid instructions as he peers ahead.  
'- _Forward, cut off. Clearing. Ambush, leading enemies_.-'  
Naruto whoops and darts ahead, and Sakura grabs his shoulder and pulls him back slightly, eyeing up the boulder half sunk into the grass of the clearing in front of them, mist team loudly slogging through the muddy grounds. They won't be held for long- Naruto barely used any chakra. It was meant to slow, not trap. "Wanna try that intimidation tactic I was talking about?" Sasuke grins from up ahead and they slide across into the open, Sakura slapping her hands on solid rock.

" _Lightened boulder jutsu; earth style_!" She whispers harshly before diving backwards out of the path of a thrown senbon. It's sloppily aimed, she notes, nothing like what her Sasuke can do. Naruto bares sharp teeth at the opposing genin team, digs clawed hands into the dirt under the rock and pulls, the muscles in his arms bulging and straining as he lifts it up, raining dirt down from the misshapen granite. It's bigger than he thought it was.

The mist ninja pale and one of them drops their umbrella, as Naruto hauls the rock towards them in an over the shoulder throw. They scatter quickly, and the forest shakes with the impact, but Sasuke is already moving, the handle of a kunai smacking into the back of one mist genin's head and putting them out cold as Sakura leaps into the lowest branches of the trees, muttering under her breath as she layers illusion after illusion until the poor mist nin don't know where or who they are, let alone where to flee to. When she's done she springs down, lands slamming on one of the mist nin and forcing them harshly to the ground face first, pinned by her weight as she leans down and finds the pressure point on the back of their neck that will knock them out before beginning to pat them down, looking for the scroll. In differing places around her Naruto and Sasuke do the same thing, until Naruto grunts happily. "Found it. Earth. We can head to the centre, with our heaven scroll." Sasuke sighs across from her and she eyes him even as she drags the genin towards one of the nearby trees, Naruto copying her after he stashes the scroll. "What's wrong Sasuke?" She huffs as she leans the genin against the tree, their teammates joining them. She checks them over quickly, hands soft green, and decides its safe to leave them here. They'll wake up soon, but her team will be long gone.

"Just thought we'd get a better challenge than that."

...

...

:hi I'm alive I'm depressed I'm dripping existential angst and I love y'all:


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